Thursday, August 14

About ExxonMobil's $1,400 in profit per second...

It was recently big news when ExxonMobil released it's quarterly earnings and it was a record breaker, with pundits noting that the corporation made $1,400 in profit per second.  Well, here is what they didn't tell you:
"I saw someone characterize our profits the other day in terms of $1,400 in profit per second. Well, they also need to understand we paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and we spent $15,000 a second in cost," Tillerson told ABC News' Charles Gibson. "We spend $1 billion a day just running our business. So this is a business where large numbers are just characteristic of it." - ABC News
People seem to want to ignore the sheer size of the corporation.  It is large.  After all, it is the result of the merger of two oil corporations, namely Exxon and Mobil.  Such a large company has many shareholders, including myself.  So, even though the company was making $1,400 profit a second, it needed to make such a profit to give shareholders a profit for the whole quarter of $2.27 for each share.  That's earnings for over 616 shares a second.
Earnings per share excluding special items were up 24% to $2.27 reflecting strong earnings and the continued reduction in the number of shares outstanding. - ExxonMobil Second Quarter results
And keep in mind that it is the shareholders who own the company and who benefit from the profits that ExxonMobil is taking in.  So I wonder, if all these people think that ExxonMobil is taking in so much cash, why aren't they buying as much stock in the company as possible?  You can do so for as little as $250 or $50 if you willing to make monthly purchases of at least $50.

Previous:

Are ExxonMobil's Profits all that Bad? - Update - FFI -
Are Record Oil Company Profits all that Bad? - FFI - 14 Sept 05
How Much Gasoline do 12 Million Illegal Aliens Consume? - FFI -
Impending Ethanol Shortage? - FFI -
CO2 Capture to Result in Improved Oil Production - FFI

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