kennyboy: sell xom shares today ???
Exxon Makes U.S. Corporate History With High Profits
By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 30, 2006; 3:09 PM
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported today that its 2005 earnings totaled $36.13 billion, the largest annual profit ever for a U.S. company.
The company's annual profit was up 43 percent from the year before.
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, also reported a $10.71 billion profit for the last quarter, an increase of 27 percent from the year before.
Those are the largest reported net income numbers in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, an analyst for Standard & Poor's in New York. He said the previous records were set by Exxon in the third quarter of last year and in 2004.
Exxon and other oil companies have benefited from unusually high prices for crude oil, gasoline and natural gas -- the result of tight supplies and heavy demand. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which disrupted domestic production and refining, contributed to those conditions and pushed prices higher.
Chevron Corp. last week reported that its fourth quarter profit was up 20 percent from the year before. ConocoPhillips reported a 51 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit. Marathon Oil Corp. reported that its fourth-quarter profit nearly tripled. Oil giants BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have not yet reported their profits.
Oil companies are trying to downplay their profits, partly because some members of Congress have been calling for new taxes on oil companies. Exxon and the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, ran newspaper ads today saying oil companies' earnings per dollar of sales are below, or in line with, those of other industries. |
