Italy's Eni followed other European majors in increasing share buyback programs after posting quadrupled second-quarter earnings beating expectations.
High commodity prices, strong refining margins, and cost management helped Eni (NYSE: E) quadruple its adjusted net profit for the second quarter compared to the same period last year, beating the analyst consensus.
Eni's adjusted net profit jumped to $3.87 billion (3.81 billion euro) for the second quarter of 2022, up from $943 million (929 million euro) for the same period of 2021. Adjusted operating profit also soared, by 186% year over year to $5.93 billion (5.84 billion euro) for Q2 2022.
Based on what CEO Claudio Descalzi described as "robust results," Eni nearly doubled its share buyback program for 2022 to $2.44 billion (2.4 billion euro) and authorized another share repurchase plan for 2023 for up to $2.54 billion (2.5 billion euro).
Eni also updated its price deck for full-year 2022, expecting Brent Crude prices to average $105 per barrel, up from a previous forecast of $90 a barrel.
Following the results release, shares in Eni jumped by nearly 5% in pre-market trade in New York and were rallying by over 5% on Friday afternoon in Milan.
Eni's robust earnings cap a week of strong financials reported by all European majors.
Equinor, for example, more than doubled its extraordinary cash dividend and increased its share repurchase program by $1 billion after reporting more than tripled adjusted earnings after tax for the second quarter amid soaring oil and gas prices.
Repsol's net profit for the second quarter surged four times compared to the same period of 2021, thanks to much higher oil and gas prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Spanish energy firm, Europe's first to pledge net-zero emissions by 2050, said on Thursday. On the same day, Shell reported a record quarterly profit for a second consecutive quarter, while TotalEnergies more than doubled its Q2 net income due to rallying oil and gas prices, record-high refining margins, and soaring LNG demand in Europe.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More