Chevron Profit Nearly Quadruples As Exxon Ups Stock Buyback Plan

Energy prices padded the bottom lines of Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron in the first quarter, a time that has helped oil companies to tell a totally different story from that is told by the Big Tech companies, which had been falling and falling into their earnings reports.

Chevron and ExxonMobil are each up about 40% in 2022 to date. So, we have seen this rise in these stocks going into these earnings reports, along with what traders and investors have seen for oil prices. So, if taken one by one; ExxonMobil tripled its share buyback program. A lot of people still own these stocks, not just because they have done well, but also for the payouts that they get.

However, Exxon did not raise its dividend, and that is something that some investors were looking for. So, it is a $30 billion share buyback authorization. So that is what happened on the one hand. However, if considering earnings per share, they did miss analysts’ estimates. The company said there was a dip in output from oil and natural gas wells, partly because of weather, partly because of other factors.

The company on the plus side said it is taking smaller than estimated writedown tied to its holdings and its offloading of assets in Russia. So that’s one thing that was potentially positive.

When it comes to Chevron; it was refining margins that were a problem, which is interesting because you have this whole political argument about, oh, these companies are price gouging. Well, if they were price gouging, Chevron did not benefit on the refining side.

In other words, turning oil into gasoline and other refined products was less profitable than expected for Chevron. So that’s something important to mention as well.

It was an interesting quarter for both of these companies because Chevron, at least fundamentally, numbers wise, looks better than Exxon, but Exxon come out with a new $30 billion stock buyback plan, another big company announcing a share repurchase program. So, lots for investors are there to digest and exploit these results.

The other name to watch in the oil space headed to the week is Occidental Petroleum. So that is a name to watch into the close.