Wolfe Research Analyst: Exxon Results Are A Slight Miss

The world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM, posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, which came as a surprise to most market participants as oil prices have plunged significantly over the last few months. The company posted an EPS of $1.56, compared to analysts’ expectations of around $1.34.

Paul Sankey, senior oil and gas analyst at Wolfe Research, was on CNBC Monday, February 2 to discuss Exxon Mobil's earnings beat and the outlook for oil prices.

"The call is frankly boring, it always is," Sankey began, "but I think the tone here just today is that we are beginning to rally a little bit in oil prices and Exxon is going up relatively less than the other oil companies."

"But, it is still catching a little bit of a bid here, given that the markets stopped going down every day, which is what happened for [the] past several months."

Related Link: UPDATE: Exxon Mobil Q4 Earnings Beat Expectations

Exxon’s Results: A Sign Of Relief For Smaller Oil Companies?

"Yeah, don’t forget that these results were flattered by legal win, that they had regarding Venezuela and some additional U.S. tax givebacks -- neither of which are true operational earnings," Sankey said.

"So, we are not considering this to be a beat from Exxon."

So, Is This A Miss?

"Let's be clear: we think it's a slight miss. Yeah, I mean it's tough. Exxon is obviously considered to be defensive, and this is a terrific stand out here right now, because it's retained some kind of buyback."

"We had Chevron going to 0 buyback on Friday. Exxon has retained a billion dollars of quarter buyback, and so we will remain very defensive as oil falls."

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: CNBCMediaCNBCPaul SankeyWolfe Research
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!