Chevron Wants Earnings To Prove Exxon Mobil Was a Fluke? (CVX, XOM, SLB, HAL, BHI)

Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) is set to report earnings on Friday morning.  First Call notes that $2.30 EPS is expected on revenues of $50.3 Billion.  The company posted EPS of $1.86 last quarter and $1.74 in Q4 2006.  We’ve already seen Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) and Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) post earnings, and this will help complete much of the circle.

The average analyst that follows Chevron has close to a $94.00 target on the stock.  It’s hard to tell how efficient options are after a market like today, but based on the close it looks like options traders are prepared for Chevron to move up to about $2.10 in either direction.

We noted in our Baker Hughes earnings preview that it is hard to get excited about a single earnings report after a major meltdown like today and after the first time in recent trading where Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) actually missed earnings instead of beating estimates.  But Chevron is one of the largest in the oil patch sector by far, sporting nearly a $188 Billion market cap.

Shares didn’t fare quite as poorly today as Exxon Mobil, but Chevron shares did close down 3.9% at $87.46 and that is extreme for an oil behemoth.  That is still toward the higher-end of the $60.72 to $95.00 range seen over the last year.  This will be one to watch if Chevron can prove that Exxon’s miss was company specific.

By the way, did anyone notice how over the last year nobody ever mentions the name ‘Texaco’ any longer?

Jon C. Ogg
July 26, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.