RVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday — $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year — as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose nearly 3 percent on premarket trading. ADVERTISEMENT The company's earnings amounted to $1.71 per share for the October-December quarter, up from $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. The result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter of 2005. Exxon's profit for the year was also the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, a stock market analyst for Standard & Poor's. He said the previous high was Exxon's $25.3 billion profit in 2004. The results for the latest quarter included a $390 million gain related to a litigation settlement. Excluding special items, earnings were $10.32 billion, or $1.65 per share. The result topped Wall Street's expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted earnings of $1.44 per share. Exxon shares rose $1.79, or 2.9 percent, to $63.08 in premarket activity. Quarterly revenue ballooned to $99.66 billion from $83.37 billion a year ago but came in shy of the $100.72 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter, which was the first time a U.S. public company generated more than $100 billion in sales in a single quarter.
And if all that were plowed into honest research into more efficient photovoltaic panels and such, where could we be now? When I crawled under a rooftop array and saw "Mobil energy" on the labels on the back, the extreme irony was really driven home to me. . _H*
To be offered with every fill up by Exxon-Mobil, BP-Amoco and all the rest! [Broken External Image]:http://www.biust.pl/pasaz/foto/mama/jnj_ky_jelly_150.jpg
