Exxon Mobil Falls Short of Estimates

Despite a 17% advance in first-quarter earnings to $10.89 billion, the oil giant's per-share profits fail to hit analysts' consensus target. Shares are declining in early trading.
By Chuck Marvin ,

Exxon Mobil's

(XOM) - Get Report

first-quarter profit rose 17% to $10.89 billion, but its results still missed analysts' estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

The Irving, Texas, oil giant earned $2.03 a share for the latest quarter, up from $1.62 a share in the year-earlier period. Still, the first quarter was 11 cents short of the consensus forecast carried by Thomson Financial.

Revenue surged to $116.85 billion from $87.22 billion in the 2007 first quarter, but despite the increase, that number also failed to meet expectations of around $124 billion.

Higher crude oil and natural gas realizations, driven by record worldwide oil prices, were partly offset by lower refining and chemical margins, weaker production volumes and higher operating costs, Exxon said in a press release Thursday.

Cramer: Head for the Exit With Exxon

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Earlier this week, both

BP

(BP) - Get Report

and

Royal Dutch Shell

(RDS.A)

reported big gains in earnings that exceeded the growth at Exxon, and both of those stocks rose more than 4% in the wake of their results.

For its part, Exxon had shareholders disappointed. In premarket trading, the stock was down 2.4% to $90.81, meaning it could be a drag on the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

when the session opens.

Among Exxon's competitors,

ConocoPhillips

(COP) - Get Report

and

Occidental

(OXY) - Get Report

reported their numbers last week, and

Chevron

(CVX) - Get Report

will post its numbers Friday.

Hess

(HES) - Get Report

said Wednesday its earnings more than doubled year over year.

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