Exxon Mobil Misses Analysts 1Q Estimates

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s first-quarter profit climbed 17 percent to $10.9 billion. That is the second-biggest U.S. quarterly corporate profit ever. Only Exxon Mobil’s fourth-quarter profit last year was bigger at $11.7 billion.

Earnings for the first three months of the year came to $2.03 per share, up from $9.3 billion, or $1.62 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for $2.13 per share. With crude sliding, investors headed for the door after earnings missed the forecast. Shares lost $3.30 or 3.6 percent, at $89.77 in afternoon trading.

Revenue rose to $116.8 billion from $87.2 billion a year earlier. Analysts expected revenue of about $124 billion.

Exxon Mobil earnings from its upstream exploration and output business rose 45 percent to $8.8 billion with help from higher oil and natural gas prices. The company said higher natural gas production was offset by lower crude volume. Overall production fell 5.6 percent from a year ago.

In a note to clients, Citi Investment Research analyst Doug Leggate said Exxon Mobil’s results “clearly disappointed versus expectations,” but noted a “good suite of new projects” will likely keep its production stable in the future.

In March, the company said it will invest $25 billion to $30 billion in capital and exploration projects this year.

On the downstream refining and marketing side, earnings fell 39 percent from a year ago to nearly $1.2 billion. The company said significantly lower worldwide refining margins reduced earnings by about $1 billion in the quarter.