Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) reported its second-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Friday. With this earnings report, the company is continuing to make progress toward its goal of getting cash balanced. Although the company posted a beat on earnings, recent slumping oil prices have put a damper on the stock.
The company said that it had $0.49 in earnings per share (EPS) on $29.28 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates had called for $0.32 in EPS on revenue of $28.54 billion. In the same period of last year, Chevron posted EPS of $0.83 and $40.36 billion in revenue.
U.S. upstream operations incurred a loss of $1.11 billion in second quarter, compared with a loss of $1.04 billion in the year-ago period. The decrease in earnings was due to lower crude oil and natural gas realizations.
The company’s average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids was $36 in the second quarter, down from $50 a year ago. The average sales price of natural gas was $1.21 per thousand cubic feet at this time, compared with $1.92 in last year’s second quarter.
U.S. downstream operations earned $537 million in the second quarter, versus earnings of $731 million a year earlier. The decrease in earnings was primarily due to lower margins on refined product sales and lower earnings from the 50%-owned Chevron Phillips Chemical Company. Partially offsetting this decrease were lower operating expenses and higher gains on asset sales.
Capital and exploratory expenditures in the first six months of 2016 were $12.0 billion, compared with $17.3 billion in the same period from last year. The amounts included $1.7 billion in 2016 and $1.5 billion in 2015 for the company’s share of expenditures by affiliates. Expenditures for upstream represented 92% of the companywide total in the second quarter.
John Watson, board chair and chief executive of Chevron, commented:
The second quarter results reflected lower oil prices and our ongoing adjustment to a lower oil price world. In our upstream business, we recorded impairment and other charges on certain assets where revenue from expected oil and gas production is expected to be insufficient to recover costs. Our downstream business continued to perform well.
Cash flow from operations in the first six months of 2016 was $3.7 billion, compared with $9.5 billion in the corresponding 2015 period.
Shares of Chevron closed Thursday at $101.79, with a consensus analyst price target of $110.59 and a 52-week trading range of $69.58 to $107.58. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down 1.6% at $100.14 shortly after Friday’s opening bell.
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