MW Chevron's stock heads for 3-year low as earnings are hurt by lower oil prices

By Tomi Kilgore

Oil and gas giant's profit falls but tops expectations, while production was flat and revenue saw a rare miss

Shares of Chevron Corp. were sinking toward a three-year low in early trading Friday, after the oil and gas giant reported quarterly profit that dropped, but beat expectations, while production was flat and revenue fell short of forecasts.

The Houston-based company $(CVX)$ said reasons for the earnings decline included reduced profitability on refined product sales and lower realizations, such as lower oil pricing.

There was also a $175 million loss related to higher taxes on oil profits in the United Kingdom. Crude oil futures (CL.1) have tumbled 25.3% over the past 12 months.

Chevron's stock slumped 2.4% in premarket trading, to put it on track to open at the lowest closing prices seen since February 2022.

Net income dropped 36.4% from a year ago to $3.5 billion, as earnings for upstream, or production and exploration, fell 28.3% and for downstream, or refining and sales, were down 58.5%.

Adjusted earnings per share, which excludes nonrecurring items, were down to $2.18 from $2.93, but topped the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet of $2.16.

Worldwide production was little changed from last year, as asset sales offset 20% production growth in Kazakhstan, a 12% rise in the Permian Basin and a 7% increase in what Chevron said was the Gulf of America.

Total revenue declined 2.3% to $47.61 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $48.25 billion. That marked the first top-line miss in five quarters, and just the second miss in 16 quarters.

The company said it returned $6.9 billion in cash to its shareholders, $3.9 billion through share repurchases and the rest through dividends.

Chevron's stock has lost 5.9% in 2025 through Thursday, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF XLE has declined 5.7% and the S&P 500 index SPX has slipped 4.7%.

(This replaces an earlier item that had an incorrect percentage decline for net income. It has been corrected.)

-Tomi Kilgore

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May 02, 2025 07:20 ET (11:20 GMT)

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