Chemical Products Offset XOM's Flat Earnings

(XOM) oil production earnings may have dropped in the first quarter, but the company was able to offset the loss with strong chemical product sales, according to its April 25 quarterly earnings report. The world’s most valuable company saw its oil production -- traditionally its strength -- slip by 3.5% to 4.395 million barrels a day during the first quarter’s volatile global oil markets. Still, Exxon upped its exploration capital to $11.8 billion during the period -- a 33% increase over one year ago.

Dividends And Buybacks
Exxon’s overall performance in the first quarter was aided by a 62% increase in its chemical profits, however, and the success allowed the company to distribute $7.6 billion in dividends and buybacks to its shareholders.

A lot of what we saw with gasoline prices didn’t happen until late March, Philip Weiss, senior energy analyst at Argus Research, told CNBC. The refining results, which were pretty nice this quarter, they look like they could be weaker (next) quarter because of what’s going on in the gasoline market.

The Numbers
Exxon posted first-quarter profit of $9.5 billion, or 2.12 a share, up from an even $2 per share on $9.45 billion during the same period in 2012. Thomson Reuters analysts expected the firm to report earnings of just $2.05 a share on $11.98 billion.

Although the earnings per share topped Wall Street expectations, the gains mainly came after a stock buyback that reduced the number of outstanding shares by five percent.

Their reliance on share buybacks mutes the earnings a share beat, Brian Youngberg, energy company analyst at Edward Jones told Reuters. I’d rather see them give the cash to shareholders in the form of a dividend increase.

Shares in the Irving, Texas company fell more than one percent by midday trading following the announcement.