Chevron Earnings Could Act As DJIA Drag (CVX, XOM, DIA)

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) is out with earnings.  Regardless of the rhetoric, endless earnings growth is not just assured.  The earnings of $5.1 billion sounds massive, but that is down from about $5.3 billion a year earlier.  Chevron’s earnings of $2.58 EPS is versus $2.64 EPS a year earlier and versus Thomson Reuters estimates of $2.84 EPS.

Many will be looking for some secondary trading in Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) as the true Big Oil here, but Chevron actually has a heavier weighting in the Dow Jones Industrial Average or DJIA (NYSE: DIA).  Chevron is the third highest weighting of all DJIA components and Exxon Mobil is sixth.  The two alone count for about 11.5% of the entire DJIA.

The company noted that sales and operating revenues in the quarter 2011 were $58 billion, up from $52 billion in the year-ago period. This was mainly due to higher prices for crude oil and refined products.  Unfortunately, higher prices have not translated to higher profits and margin pressure in refining may be partly to blame and currency could have been a factor as well.

Chevron noted that worldwide oil-equivalent production was a net 2.64 million barrels per day and for the year it added approximately 1.67 billion barrels of net oil-equivalent reserves.

Wall Street is not very impressed so far and we will wait for the conference call to find out more details only skimmed over in the press release.  Shares are down 1.4% at $105.05 in early trading.

JON C. OGG