Exxon-Mobil

Exxon smashes Western oil majors' earnings record with $56 billion profit for 2022

Reuters

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday blasted oil firms for pouring cash into shareholder payouts rather than production.

Blasted them for making them richer....

Noddaz said:

Exxon smashes Western oil majors' earnings record with $56 billion profit for 2022

...which is a net profit margin - the only number than matters - of about 13%.

It's generally considered that 10% is the minimum profit necessary to be worth doing business in the long term.  $56 billion in profit just sounds like a righteous screaming headline because in raw terms it's a lot of money. But that was the profit on $413 billion in revenue.  To make that $56b they spent $357b.

Nothing to see here.  Return to your regularly scheduled "eat the rich" editorial clickbait.

Looks like this is the first time they've even beaten 10% in the last 12 years.  Also note that in 2022 they paid $17 billion in income taxes.

Outraged headlines are outraged.

In reply to Duke :

$50b plus was stock buy backs.  Which is effectively hidden profit. 
 

but don't stop celebrating gilded age 2.0 on my account.  

Fueled by Caffeine said:

In reply to Duke :

$50b plus was stock buy backs.  Which is effectively hidden profit. 
 

but don't stop celebrating gilded age 2.0 on my account.  

Fine, their gross profit margin was 18%.  I still fail to feel the outrage.

Considering the Russia/Ukraine situation, it's very interesting timing as well. Lower profits could've allowed for lower oil prices which would be less profitable for/put more pressure on Russia. Also if we can get sales amounts for the same period we may be able to finally nail down the truth of whether big oil has been price gouging us.

This is all small potatoes compared to knowingly playing chicken with Earth's habitability for profit and then lying about it though. If someone had written a sci-fi novel where a corporation did that, people would've called it cheesy and unrealistic with cartoonish villains.

In reply to Duke :

I just wonder how many of their divisions play the "if we don't spend it all this year we can't get an increase next year" game with budgets like oh so many government agencies do.

Duke said:

Fueled by Caffeine said:

In reply to Duke :

$50b plus was stock buy backs.  Which is effectively hidden profit. 
 

but don't stop celebrating gilded age 2.0 on my account.  

Fine, their gross profit margin was 18%.  I still fail to feel the outrage.

 

As long as you are happy paying so much for all of your HC's you use.  Can't really have it both ways where it's ok that oil companies make massive profits AND we complain about energy costs.

It's also interesting that the general public has to scale back and suffer due to the war, but companies can have high profits at the same time.  So much for shared sacrifice.

In reply to alfadriver :

I'm not complaining about energy costs, am I?

And my whole point is that these are not particularly "massive" profits.  Plenty of industries have net profit margins in the 20%-30% range, but nobody bitches about that, because the dollar figure is a lower number.

Thank goodness we're still subsidizing them to the tune of $12-19billion per year!

STM317 said:

Thank goodness we're still subsidizing them to the tune of $12-19billion per year!

This hurts.  So much. 

Duke said:

In reply to alfadriver :

I'm not complaining about energy costs, am I?

And my whole point is that these are not particularly "massive" profits.  Plenty of industries have net profit margins in the 20%-30% range, but nobody bitches about that, because the dollar figure is a lower number.

 

Not in this thread.  But I'm just pointing out the reality of the numbers.  If that's OK, then the price we pay is ok, too.  

And I'm not sure about your profit margin required- in my 30 years at Ford, we never had 10%.  It did in the past, but hasn't for at least 1/3 of its life.  Most of the time is was barely more than a couple of percent, and sometimes less than 0.

alfadriver said: If that's OK, then the price we pay is ok, too.  

The absurd part is this is for a global commodity. Do the orange growers experience this profit? Steel? Aluminum? 

I am *fine* with profit, even outsized profit if it drives customer advantages that justify it. Here, it's almost like there is a global cabal that is paying governments for outsized protection of their business model. 

Fueled by Caffeine said:

STM317 said:

Thank goodness we're still subsidizing them to the tune of $12-19billion per year!

This hurts.  So much. 

Nor am I in favor of corporate subsidies of any kind.

For reference, it looks like their average net margin since Q1 2010 has been 5.98%. That's weighed down noticeably by poor results during the pandemic. So if we want to look at more normal times and compare Q1 2010 to Q1 2020 it was an average profit margin of 7.18%. So the current 13.6% return is 89% above historic average for their business.

alfadriver said:

And I'm not sure about your profit margin required- in my 30 years at Ford, we never had 10%.  It did in the past, but hasn't for at least 1/3 of its life.  Most of the time is was barely more than a couple of percent, and sometimes less than 0.

Which is much bad juju.

Just saw news that the next few quarters of profit for the big oil companies will probably be near-record levels as well:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html

In reply to STM317 :

For reference, it looks like their average net margin since Q1 2010 has been 5.98%. That's weighed down noticeably by poor results during the pandemic. So if we want to look at more normal times and compare Q1 2010 to Q1 2020 it was an average profit margin of 7.18%. So the current 13.6% return is 89% above historic average for their business.

Wow, it's almost like the higher profits during the recovery balanced out the losses during the downturn. What a crazy coincidence. 

^If the next 3 quarters are similar as expected, it'll be way beyond balanced out...

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

Pretty big driver for inflation as well in both 'energy' and 'transportation' categories (although higher oil prices are reflected in nearly every product). Here's how some of the most recent CPI data breaks down:

All of this while the US is emptying it's Strategic Petroleum Reserves at the most aggressive rate ever to try and combat the higher inflation:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Awesome!!!

My MIL was a very competent investor and was over weighted in energy stocks for the ~30 years I knew her.

She passed away last June at 91 and during the last few years of her life, her financial advisors aggressively tried to move her into E36 M3y annuities and stuff.

Even with advancing senile dementia she wouldn't budge.

Flo, you bad a$$, here's to you! 

The oil companies have been taking a few extra pennies per fillup from us for years, every time the geopolitical world gave them an excuse.  Then they spend so much money on lobby groups they get billions in subsidies and tax breaks.  How much do they average in tax es paid every year?

It is the game called democracy, an open market and global politics.  Buy energy stocks, get some of the money in your bank account.  Buy a beat up prius, watch you fill ups go from 50 to 20 bucks.  Sometimes we act like an animal howling at the moon to make the sun come back.

Aside from the outragey headline and comments about global warming...

That's an astonishingly low profit margin. I don't have access to that information at my privately owned company, but would not be surprised if it was three digits.

In reply to RX Reven' :

I mean, it's bad for most people and all non-human life and especially Ukrainians, but yay Flo I guess?

Edit: Maybe a mixed bag for non-human life...it's bad that oil companies are healthy but good that it's expensive.