By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com -- Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) shares both fell Friday after the companies reported earnings that fell short of expectations on a per-share basis.
Ahe surge in oil and gas prices helped boost revenue, however. Chevron posted its highest quarterly profit in 10 years, and Exxon's earnings doubled in the first quarter.
Exxon Mobil posted earnings per share of $2.07 on revenue of $90.5 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com expected EPS of $2.23 on revenue of $81.3 billion. Exxon's profit rose even after a $3.4 billion after-tax charge connected to its Sakhalin-1 operation in Russia.
Meanwhile, Chevron reported earnings per share of $3.36 on revenue of $54.37 billion, against forecasts of $3.43 per share on revenue of $50.65 billion. Chevron's first-quarter 2021 revenue was $32.03 billion.
WTI crude futures hit over $130 in early March, and while oil prices have since fallen somewhat, they are still above the $100 mark.
“Chevron is doing its part to grow domestic supply with U.S. oil and gas production up 10 percent over first quarter last year,” said Mike Wirth, Chevron’s chairman and chief executive officer.
Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon, said: “The quarter illustrated the strength of our underlying business and significant progress in further developing our competitively advantaged production portfolio."
“Earnings increased modestly, as strong margin improvement and underlying growth was offset by weather and timing impacts."
Chevron stock closed Friday's session down 3.16%, while Exxon Mobile fell 2.24%.