ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) reported on Friday an 18-percent annual increase in earnings per share for the second quarter, but missed-yet again-analyst expectations, and reported its lowest production in a decade.
Exxon said on Friday that its second-quarter earnings rose to US$4 billion, or US$0.92 per share assuming dilution, up from US$3.4 billion for Q2 2017. Although earnings per common share rose by 18 percent from a year ago, they fell short of the analyst consensus of the Wall Street Journal for US$1.27 earnings per share. Compared to the first quarter, Exxon's earnings per share in Q2 were down by 16 percent.
Following the results announcement, Exxon's shares were down 4 percent in pre-market trade on the NYSE, and after the market opened, shares slipped 2.86 percent at 9:35 AM EDT. Investors and analysts were disappointed not only by the earnings miss, but also by the lack of any share buyback announcement or hint for such.
Exxon's oil-equivalent production came in at 3.6 million barrels per day in Q2 2018, down by 7 percent from the second quarter of 2017. This was the U.S. supermajor's lowest production level since 2008, according to Bloomberg.
Few of the bright points in Exxon's earnings release included U.S. tight oil growth in the Permian and the Bakken, reaching over 250,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day in the second quarter, up by 30 percent from the same period last year.
In the downstream, Exxon's overall throughput and earnings were impacted by heavy turnaround and maintenance activities during the quarter, the oil major said.
"Second quarter results were primarily impacted by significant scheduled maintenance undertaken to support operational integrity. In addition, while we were pleased with the return of full production following the PNG earthquake, extended recoveries from first quarter operational incidents in the Downstream were disappointing. However, good progress was made during the second quarter in fully recovering from these incidents," Darren W. Woods, Exxon's chairman and chief executive officer, said, commenting on the results.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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