Exxon’s profit rises 17 percent
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that record crude prices helped its first-quarter profit climb 17 percent to $10.9 billion – the second-biggest U.S. quarterly corporate profit ever.
But the results still fell short of Wall Street’s lofty forecasts, and Exxon Mobil shares fell almost 4 percent.
The company’s refining operations limited its overall earnings growth, because prices for crude oil rose even faster than the increase drivers see at the gasoline pump.
Lower production to start the year hurt too.
Exxon Mobil, based in Irving, Texas, said earnings for the first three months of the year were up from $9.3 billion a year ago.
The only larger result in a three-month period was the $11.7 billion Exxon Mobil posted in the final three months of 2007.
Revenue rose to $116.8 billion from $87.2 billion a year earlier. Analysts were looking for revenue of about $124 billion.
The company said earnings at its exploration and production, or upstream, business rose 45 percent to $8.8 billion, lifted by higher oil and natural gas prices. Increased natural gas production was more than offset by lower crude volumes.
•Sun Microsystems Inc. swung to a loss in the fiscal third quarter, stunning investors who were expecting a healthy profit from the server and software maker despite a weakening U.S. economy. The Santa Clara-based company also forecast flat revenues for the fourth quarter and revealed plans to jettison between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs as it tries to snap out of a sudden financial funk that has snapped its streak of five straight profitable quarters. The company said it lost $34 million in the three months that ended March 30. That’s down from a profit of $67 million during the year-ago period.
•Burger King Holdings Inc. said strong same-store sales and new restaurant growth helped boost profit 21 percent in its third fiscal quarter, as new products, U.S. advertising and international expansion all helped the No. 2 burger chain. The Miami-based fast-food chain said net income rose to $41 million, from $34 million last year. Revenue rose 10 percent to $594 million from $539 million last year.
•Eastman Kodak Co. said its first-quarter loss narrowed to $115 million as it battles for a bigger slice of digital photography after navigating a drastic, four-year overhaul. Sales rose 1 percent to $2.093 billion from $2.08 billion for the period a year ago.
•Promotional offers and higher cable television spending fueled the first-quarter profits of Comcast Corp., which showed limited effects from an economic slowdown. The nation’s largest cable operator posted a 12.5 percent decline in profits, mainly due to one-time gains from the dissolution of cable partnerships. Excluding those gains, earnings actually rose by 9.5 percent. Philadelphia-based Comcast posted net income of $732 million, compared with $837 million in the quarter a year ago. Quarterly profits were $588 million.