Higher Oil Prices Help Exxon Beat Q3 Forecasts Despite Harvey

Driven by higher commodity prices, third-quarter earnings of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) jumped 50 percent annually and beat analyst expectations, despite the fact that Hurricane Harvey dented some of the profits.

Exxon reported on Friday earnings of $0.93 per diluted share for Q3, up by 48 percent from the $0.63 EPS for the third quarter last year, as commodity prices improved and performance in the upstream and downstream divisions strengthened. Impacts related to Hurricane Harvey reduced earnings by an estimated 4 cents per share, Exxon said.

The third-quarter EPS beat the analyst consensus of $0.86.

Exxon’s revenues rose to $66.165 billion for Q3 2017, from $58.677 billion for the same period last year.

Cash flow—the metric on which all of Big Oil and industry analysts are fixated—also significantly increased in Q3 this year compared to the prior year period. Exxon’s cash flow from operations and asset sales rose to $8.4 billion from $6.3 billion, while net cash flow from operations jumped to $7.5 billion in Q3 2017 from $5.3 billion in Q3 2016.

“A 50 percent increase in earnings through solid business performance and higher commodity prices is a step forward in our plan to grow profitability,” said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer. “For the fourth-consecutive quarter, we generated cash flow from operations and asset sales that more than covered our dividends and net investments in the business,” Woods noted.

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That said, Exxon’s Q3 dividends per share of $0.77 rose by 2.7 percent compared to the third quarter last year. Capital and exploration expenditures rose 43 percent annually to $5.987 billion in Q3 2017.

Oil-equivalent production increased by 2 percent on the year, to 3.9 million bpd in the third quarter of 2017.

In the upstream segment, Exxon’s earnings jumped by $947 million on the year to $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2017, mostly due to higher commodity prices. Despite the impact of Hurricane Harvey, downstream earnings increased by $303 million to $1.5 billion, thanks to higher refining margins.

At 11:30 a.m. EDT on Friday, Exxon was up .62 percent at $83.98 on the NYSE.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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