Exxon Mobil: $9.4B profit in 3 months

Exxon Mobil: $9.4B profit in 3 months
Oil giant's big quarterly earnings nonetheless fall 10% from last year and miss Wall Street's estimates, as crude costs rise faster than gasoline prices.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
November 1 2007: 12:54 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil made $9.4 billion in the last three months, 10 percent less than last year and below what analysts expected as gasoline and diesel prices failed to keep pace with rising crude costs.

The quarterly performance by the world's second-largest company after Wal-Mart fell short of its all-time record. In the last quarter of 2005, Exxon Mobil (Charts, Fortune 500) made a profit of $10.7 billion - the largest quarterly corporate profit ever recorded.

The Irving, Texas-based company reported revenue of $102.3 billion in the third quarter, about 3 percent more than last year.

But rising costs to find and produce oil and to buy crude ate into profits.

"The decrease reflected lower downstream and chemical margins partly offset by higher crude oil realizations," read a company statement.

more...

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/01/news/companies/exxon_mobil/?postversion=2007110112

Oh, I meant "assets."

That should speak volumes.

As percent of revenue, there are plenty of other companies that are more guilty of price-gouging. Some examples:

Google 25.2% - http://www.betanews.com/article/Google_Profit_Surges_46_Percent/1192809020
Coke 18.9% - http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/coca-cola-profit-jumps-13-percent/20071017072809990001

As someone who bought Exxon for my retirement account, I wish people would quit screaming about price gouging when their profit is not out-of-line with their size.

Exxon is a half a trillion dollar company (market cap is 500 billion), so, unless they are doing terribly, they're going to have a large multi-billion dollar figure for profits.

Would that make you feel better?

I thought the penalty they were assessed was way too low (I don't remember the details, but if memory serves it was in the neighborhood of one quarter's profits).

But that's different than all the mock outrage at a profit level that is about normal.

Whatever.

I have no idea where you got 20 years.

Maybe you bought it despite the fact that Exxon has made it clear what they think about this planet that I happen to like.
I repeat: Whatever.

Must be tough.....