Chevron reported this Friday a profit for the fourth quarter that did not reach the estimates of Wall Street, despite considerably higher oil and gas prices.
The first of the oil giants to report quarterly results posted adjusted earnings of $5.1 billion, or $2.65 per share, on earnings from pumping oil that were five times higher than results a year ago from the pandemic.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of $3.12 per share, according to Refinitiv.
This week, investors pushed up shares of Chevron to an all-time high on expectations that high oil prices will continue to accelerate earnings. Shares of the company jumped 2% on Thursday to $135.37, surpassing the previous high of $133.60 set four years ago.
The company said its first-quarter share buybacks would be at the higher end of the $3 billion to $5 billion annual range it had estimated last year. Chevron increased its dividend by 6% to $1.42 a share earlier this week.
Chevron slashed spending on new projects in 2020, sending profits soaring as oil and gas prices rebounded from the impact of the pandemic. The benchmark oil price last quarter averaged $79 a barrel compared to $43 a year earlier.
In its oil and gas production business, Chevron reported an operating profit of $5.2 billion, up from $501 million in the same period a year ago, but below analysts’ expectations for an operating profit of about 6.6 billion.
Chevron’s global oil and gas production reached 3.12 million barrels per day (bpd) in the fourth quarter of 2021, down 5% from a year ago.
