Exxon misses Street 4Q forecasts

IRVING, Texas (AP) - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported fourth-quarter profit of $8.38 billion.

The Irving, Texas-based company said it had profit of $1.97 per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, came to 88 cents per share.

The results missed Wall Street expectations, but Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.06 per share.

The oil and natural gas company posted revenue of $66.52 billion in the period, also falling short of Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $74.44 billion.

In early trading, Exxon shares slid 4 percent, or $3.60, to $85.47. Shares have risen 6.5 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 5.5 percent. The stock has climbed slightly more than 7 percent in the last 12 months.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on XOM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/XOM