By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) stock dipped before recovering in premarket trading on Tuesday, after confirming expectations of one of corporate America's biggest ever annual profits.
The oil and gas group said it made $12.8 billion in the final quarter of the year, bringing total profit for 2022 to $55.7B. Reported earnings per share at $3.09 (adjusted $3.40), were however below a consensus forecast of $3.29, due in part to higher taxes on its operations in Europe, and to write-offs on its Sakhalin-1 oil project off Russia's Pacific coast.
Exxon said it expects to pay another $400M in taxes in Europe in the coming quarter, on top of $1.8B paid in the last quarter.
It also said that it expects its daily output in the current quarter to be in line with the 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent posted in the final quarter of 2022, with growth in its Permian basin projects offsetting asset disposals elsewhere.
"Of course, our results clearly benefited from a favorable market but, to take full advantage of the undersupplied market our work began years ago," Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a presentation accompanying the release. He implied that 2022's results were the results of the investments that drove Exxon to its first loss in decades in 2020 - investments that are now paying off.
"We leaned in when others leaned out, bucking conventional wisdom. We continued with these investments through the pandemic and into today," Woods said.
Exxon's stock price fell to its lowest in nearly 20 years during the pandemic as mobility restrictions around the world crushed demand for oil. However, as economies have reopened, so oil prices have rebounded, and many analysts expect the market to remain well-supported this year as Chinese tourists and businessmen travel freely for the first time in three years. Exxon's stock price, meanwhile, has nearly quadrupled from its low in November 2020.
By 08:10 ET (13:10 GMT), ExxonMobil stock was up 0.3% at $113.79, some 3.5% below the all-time high that it hit last week.