Exxon Mobil earns $10.49 billion in quarter

Exxon Mobil’s daily take-home pay from July to September came in at $114 million — give or take a few thousand.

The world’s largest public oil company reported the second-largest quarterly profit ever for a publicly traded company on Thursday: $10.49 billion.

The best may be yet to come, analysts said.

Unless the recent slide in energy prices continues, Exxon Mobil Corp. could be poised to deliver an even stronger performance through the remainder of this year. And because gas prices have dropped, those gargantuan earnings are unlikely to draw the ire of Congress or consumers, as they did earlier in the year.

“The thing you’ve got to understand is this, everything that could work for Exxon this quarter did: high oil prices, lower down time and growth in production,” said Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. “I would not rule out anything right now.”

Another major international oil company, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, said Thursday that its third-quarter profit fell 34 percent to $5.94 billion even as revenues rose 10 percent to $84.3 billion. But the Anglo-Dutch company’s operating profit rose as higher oil prices outweighed worsening refining margins.

The largest quarterly performance already belongs to Exxon Mobil — $10.71 billion profit in the fourth quarter of 2005.

“Microsoft Corp.’s fiscal first-quarter earnings rose by 11 percent, exceeding Wall Street estimates, as the company said it benefited from stronger sales of server software and some cost savings.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, Microsoft said it earned $3.48 billion, or 35 cents per share. That compares with earnings of $3.14 billion, or 29 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

The year-earlier results included a one-time legal charge of 2 cents per share.

The Redmond-based company said revenue for its fiscal first quarter was $10.81 billion, an 11 percent increase over $9.74 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 31 cents per share on revenue of $10.75 billion.

Microsoft shares rose 4 cents, or 0.14 percent, to close at $28.35 in trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, before the earnings report. In after-hours trading, shares rose 21 cents, or less than 1 percent.

“Wendy’s International Inc. said on Thursday that earnings were little changed in the third quarter compared with a year ago as the nation’s third-largest hamburger chain returned its focus to its core burger business.

Earnings were $72 million, or 61 cents a share, in the quarter ended Oct. 1, compared with $72.1 million, or 61 cents a share, a year ago. Total revenues rose about 2.5 percent to $623.8 million from $608.8 million a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 64 cents a share.

“Sprint Nextel Corp. just missed Wall Street estimates Thursday as subscriber numbers showed it has fallen farther behind in the wireless market.

The company reported earnings of $247 million, or 8 cents per share, down 52 percent from $514 million, or 23 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Sprint said it earned 32 cents per share in the most recent quarter, after excluding 2 cents for special items and 22 cents for merger and acquisition-related amortization cost.

That was a penny short of the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

“Comcast Corp., the nation’s biggest cable TV company, is on a roll with its video, phone and Internet package supported by a blitz of hip commercials.

The fortunes of the nation’s largest cable company were buoyed in the third quarter, as in recent periods, by droves of customers signing up for Comcast’s “triple play” package.

Triple play — which often costs customers $99 per month for the first year — was the main driver of Comcast’s third-quarter earnings.

In September, half of all triple-play customers were new to Comcast, which serves 24 million cable customers in 39 states and Washington, D.C.

Philadelphia-based Comcast reported net income of $1.22 billion, or 58 cents a share, versus $222 million, or 10 cents a share, a year ago.