XOM is the class act among the integrateds and historically has had a higher multiple than competitors, afaik. After your post, I checked my assumption that XOM is deserving of such multiple because it has outperformed them (by market appreciation) as well. Surprise to me, TOT generally has done better than XOM:
finance.yahoo.com
When you couple Total's over 5% div. yield vs. XOM's only 2.6%, it would seem that TOT might indeed be the better play based on that and TOT's historical performance (the above chart). XOM, otoh, might be safer in that it has a cash cushion and total debt to equity of .09 vs. Total's .51 Total Debt/Equity (per SI financials). And XOM, even with all its cash, has a roe of almost 20% vs. TOT's roughly 11%.
I'll have to keep TOT in mind, because if, for long periods of time, TOT has outperformed XOM, then maybe instead of XOM, I'll want to add to the few shares of TOT I have tucked away. For that matter I'm still holding also Pargesa, the Belgian holding company that always (apparently) will trade under its nav. It holds a bit of Total:
blog.valueinvestingcongress.com |
