3 key takeaways from Exxon Mobil’s Q1 earnings report

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) reported its financial results for the fiscal first quarter on Friday that beat Wall Street estimates. The company attributed its hawkish performance to cut costs and higher commodity prices.

1. Financial performance

Exxon reported £1.97 billion of net income in the first quarter that translates to 46.11 pence per share. In the same quarter last year, it had posted £439.51 million of loss, or 10.09 pence per share. Adjusted for one-time items, the oil major earned 46.83 pence per share in Q1.

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The American multinational valued its revenue in the recent quarter at £42.62 billion that represents a 5.3% year over year growth. According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to post £40.62 billion of sales and 43.23 pence of adjusted EPS.

2. Other notable figures in Exxon’s earnings report

At £40.03 billion, total costs, as per Exxon Mobil, saw a 1.5% annualised decline in the first quarter. For fiscal 2021, the oil and gas company kept its guidance for capital expenditure between £11.53 billion and £13.69 billion.

Exxon’s upstream business in Q1 noted a 42% growth in average realisations for crude oil and 33% for natural gas, compared to the prior quarter. Exxon Mobile had swung to £14.68 billion of net loss in Q4.

3. CEO Darren Woods’ comments on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”

Commenting on activist investors demanding changes at the board, CEO Darren Woods said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”:

“With the first activist investor D.E. Shaw, we had a very constructive conversation, talked about the objectives, talked about how best to achieve those objectives. And from that conversation, it was clear that we are aligned on the objective of growing shareholder value and, as discussions progressed, on how best to do that.”

“We did the same with Engine No. 1 and agreed on one objective to make sure that the company is well-positioned to deal with transition and help society evolve to a low-carbon future. But in terms of how best to do that, Engine No. 1 wasn’t particularly interested in understanding how best Exxon Mobil could contribute to that and grow shareholder value while transitioning. Frankly, they’re pushing us to wind down our investments, wind down the business, move into solar and wind where we don’t really have a competitive advantage,” Woods added.

Impact on the share price

Exxon shares opened over 1% down in the stock market on Friday. The stock is now trading at £41.86 per share versus £29.90 per share at the start of the year. At the time of writing, Exxon has a market capitalisation of £117.65 billion.