Is it possible for a company to have its best earnings ever for the first three months of the year and the second-best of all time for any corporation and still not please anyone?
The answer is yes if the company is Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company. Irving, Texas-based Exxon on Thursday posted first-quarter sales of $116.9 billion, a better performance in three months than all but 52 nations do in a year, according to the International Monetary Fund's world rankings for gross domestic product.
And Exxon got to keep $10.9 billion, or $2.03 a share, in net profit after all the bills were paid. That was up 17% from year-earlier earnings but less than Wall Street had expected because of weak production and anemic refining profit.
Henry Hubble, the company's vice president of investor relations and corporate secretary, emphasized the positive during a conference call with analysts and investors: "In an environment of high commodity prices, Exxon Mobil's outstanding portfolio of integrated businesses performed well, allowing us to deliver record first-quarter results."
But consumer advocates blasted the company, saying it and other oil companies were posting exorbitant profits at a time when many Americans are hurting from high fuel costs and the weak economy. They also said Exxon spent too much buying back stock and not enough on capital investments in production that could help bring energy costs down.
Members of Congress threatened legislation to rein in oil company behavior. And one of the few families that can trace its investment history with the company all the way back to the old days of Standard Oil -- the Rockefeller clan -- said this week that Exxon Mobil was on the wrong path and not focusing on renewable energy.
Amid record oil prices, analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast $2.13 a share in earnings. Investors weren't thrilled either, sending shares down from $3.37, or 3.6%, to $89.70.
"It was a terrible day for Exxon Mobil," said Fadel Gheit, senior oil analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. "Their production problems are more pronounced than their rivals'. They are not improving as much either, and with the price of oil so high, they can no longer dictate terms to oil producing countries. They are now at the mercy of geopolitics."
