Driven by higher commodity prices, third-quarter earnings of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) jumped 50 percent annually and beat analyst expectations, despite the fact that Hurricane Harvey dented some of the profits.
Exxon reported on Friday earnings of $0.93 per diluted share for Q3, up by 48 percent from the $0.63 EPS for the third quarter last year, as commodity prices improved and performance in the upstream and downstream divisions strengthened. Impacts related to Hurricane Harvey reduced earnings by an estimated 4 cents per share, Exxon said.
The third-quarter EPS beat the analyst consensus of $0.86.
Exxon's revenues rose to $66.165 billion for Q3 2017, from $58.677 billion for the same period last year.
Cash flow-the metric on which all of Big Oil and industry analysts are fixated-also significantly increased in Q3 this year compared to the prior year period. Exxon's cash flow from operations and asset sales rose to $8.4 billion from $6.3 billion, while net cash flow from operations jumped to $7.5 billion in Q3 2017 from $5.3 billion in Q3 2016.
"A 50 percent increase in earnings through solid business performance and higher commodity prices is a step forward in our plan to grow profitability," said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer. "For the fourth-consecutive quarter, we generated cash flow from operations and asset sales that more than covered our dividends and net investments in the business," Woods noted.
Related: Saudi Arabia To Move Beyond Oil And Islam
That said, Exxon's Q3 dividends per share of $0.77 rose by 2.7 percent compared to the third quarter last year. Capital and exploration expenditures rose 43 percent annually to $5.987 billion in Q3 2017.
Oil-equivalent production increased by 2 percent on the year, to 3.9 million bpd in the third quarter of 2017.
In the upstream segment, Exxon's earnings jumped by $947 million on the year to $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2017, mostly due to higher commodity prices. Despite the impact of Hurricane Harvey, downstream earnings increased by $303 million to $1.5 billion, thanks to higher refining margins.
At 11:30 a.m. EDT on Friday, Exxon was up .62 percent at $83.98 on the NYSE.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More