Exxon Runs Low on Fuel -- WSJ

By Kevin Kingsbury 

How the mighty oil giants have fallen.

Exxon Mobil Corp. generated plenty of headlines earlier this decade when it was posting quarterly profits in excess of $10 billion. But those records are a distant memory in the wake of oil's price tumble.

Exxon, the industry's biggest publicly traded company, on Friday is projected to post its smallest quarterly earnings this century.

Analysts expect Exxon to report first-quarter net income of $1.29 billion, according to consensus analyst estimates from Thomson Reuters. Exxon hasn't logged a sub-$2 billion profit since the third quarter of 1999, when it posted $1.5 billion. That November, Exxon's merger with Mobil was completed.

The first quarter should be Exxon's earnings trough, according to analysts' projections. Oil prices have rebounded sharply from this winter's 13-year low. Of course, many on Wall Street predicted that the first half of 2015 would be the earnings trough for energy companies as well.

If things end up being even worse than Wall Street predicts, keep in mind that Exxon last reported less than $1 billion of earnings in the second quarter of 1994; they came in at $885 million.

$1.29 billion

The amount analysts expect Exxon Mobil Corp. to log in first-quarter earnings, which would be its lowest quarterly profit since the merger of Exxon Corp. and Mobil Corp. in 1999

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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