Chevron earnings fall short of estimates in ‘year like no other’
Chevron Corp.
CVX,
said Friday it had a loss of $665 million, or 33 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, narrower than the loss of $6.6 billion, or $3.51 a share, posted in the year-earlier period. Excluding special items, the energy giant’s loss per share came to 1 cent, while the FactSet consensus was for earnings per share of 8 cents. Revenue fell to $25.246 billion from $36.350 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $25.817 billion. “2020 was a year like no other,” Chief Executive Mike Wirth said in a statement, referring to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. When market conditions started to turn, the company moved to cut capital spending by 35% and reduced operating costs. It completed the acquisition of Noble Energy in October and sold assets for proceeds of $2.9 billion, including the sale of its Appalachia natural gas business in December. Chevron added 832 million barrels of net oil-equivalent proved reserves in 2020, said Wirth. The company had $5.6 billon in liquid assets as of year-end and total debt of $44.3 billion. Shares slid 1.6% premarket and are down 19% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 16%.
