Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is scheduled to release fourth-quarter earnings before the market open on Monday, January 31, 2011. Analysts, onv average, expect the company to report earnings of $1.60 per share on revenue of $99.11 billion. In the year ago quarter, the company reported earnings of $1.27 per share on revenue of $89.84 billion.
Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration, production, transportation, and sale of crude oil and natural gas. It also has interests in electric power generation facilities.
In the preceding third quarter, the Irving, Texas-based company's net income was $7.35 billion, or $1.44 a share, compared to $4.73 billion, or 98 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue increased to $95.3 billion from $82.3 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts, on average, expected the company to report earnings of $1.39 per share on revenue of $98.11 billion. Third quarter results benefited from higher commodity price realizations, improved refinery margins and solid chemical contributions.
Exxon Mobil sets itself apart as a superior capital allocator and operator. Through a relentless pursuit of efficiency, technology,
development, and operational improvement, it consistently delivers higher returns on capital relative to peers. The company has benefited from a rally in oil prices. Oil prices rose 12 percent in the fourth quarter, which likely contributed to sizable gains in fourth-quarter net income.Oil is trading above $90 in the last days. With the economic rebound showing signs of strengthening, oil may go even higher. Projections are that it will hit $100 again in 2011.
The oil giant recently said that it will continue to look for unconventional assets to buy as it seeks to grow that part of its business following last year's acquistion of XTO Energy. Since its purcase of XTO, Exxon has added more unconventional acreage -- or acreage where technology like hydraulic fracturing is required to extract oil and gas -- to its portfolio. Last month, Exxon paid $650 million to buy natural gas assets in the Fayetteville shale in Arkansas from Petrohawk Energy Corp. (NYSE: HK).
Among other developments, Exxon Mobil Corp. recently signed a deal with Russian oil company OAO Rosneft to develop offshore oil and gas in the Black Sea. The deal is ExxonMobil's biggest new venture in Russia since it agreed upon landmark ventures to produce oil and ga off the coast of Sakhalin in Russia's far east.
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