By Senad Karaahmetovic
Shares of Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) are trading about 2% higher in pre-open Friday after two energy giants reported stronger-than-expected results.
Chevron crushed estimates by reporting a Q3 EPS of $5.66 on revenue of $66.64 billion, a significant beat relative to the expectations for EPS of $4.83 on sales of $57.03 billion.
The beat was driven by upstream earnings that soared 81% year-over-year to $9.31 billion. Chevron said that it generated $15.3 billion in cash flow while the adjusted cash flow from operations for the first nine months of the year now stands at $35.9 billion.
"The key driver of the beat was from International Upstream and Downstream, with International natural gas production and realized pricing coming in higher vs GS estimates on the quarter," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a client note.
Similarly, Exxon Mobil posted a Q3 EPS of $4.45 on revenue of $112.07 billion, easily topping the consensus of $3.67 on sales of $107.24 billion.
"Rigorous cost control and growth of higher-margin petroleum and chemical products also contributed to earnings and cash flow growth in the quarter," the company stated.
Exxon reaffirmed its capex forecast of $21 billion to $24 billion and said it is on track to exceed $9 billion in annual savings by 2023.