Shares of Chesapeake rose 8.3%, having rallied more than 10% in early trading. The natural gas producer announced late Tuesday Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon has agreed to retire on April 1.
McClendon, a co-founder of the Oklahoma City, Okla. company, stepped down as chairman last year amid allegations of conflict of interest. An investigation cleared him but “the time has come for the company to select a new leader,” Chesapeake said.
Refiner Phillips 66 also topped gainers on Wednesday, on the heels of a fourth-quarter profit decline. The company, however, raised its annual dividend by 25% and added a share buyback.
Phillips 66 reported a profit of $708 million, or $1.11 a share, down from $2.01 billion, or $3.17 a share, a year earlier. Excluding write-downs and other items, earnings were up at $2.06 from 60 cents. Revenue decreased 11% to $44.67 billion on fewer asset-sale gains. Analysts projected per-share earnings around $1.68.
Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. gained 2%.
The company has agreed to sell 40% of its stake in the Wolfcamp shale field in Texas’ Permian Basin to Chinese conglomerate Sinochem Group for $1.7 billion, a move Pioneer said will accelerate development in the area.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. shares rose 0.9% after the company posted fourth-quarter results that beat analyst expectations. The company reported a profit of $755 million, or $2.24 a share, compared with a loss of $75 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding items such as pension settlement expenses, per-share earnings were $2.26. Analysts expected per-share results of $2.10.
Marathon Petroleum’s sales and revenue were up 6.5% year over year to $20.68 billion.
Among the decliners, shares of Hess Corp. were down 0.6%, after a two-day rally on Elliott Management’s push for a company shake-up and the announcement of asset sales.
Hess reported a profit of $566 million, or $1.66 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $131 million, or 39 cents a share.
Revenue increased 9.9% to $9.7 billion. Analysts expected earnings around $1.20 a share on revenue of $9.63 billion.
Hess was in the headlines Monday and Tuesday after it said it was planning to sell a New Jersey refinery and other assets. On Tuesday, the hedge fund sent a scathing letter to Hess shareholders calling for more changes at the oil and gas company and more focus on oil and gas exploration.
Big Oil shares were among the day’s laggards, with Exxon Mobil Corp. down 0.4%. Macquarie has cut Exxon Mobil shares to neutral From outperform, the Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Rival Chevron Corp. was also down 0.4%. ConocoPhillips shares were off 0.3%.
ConocoPhillips is slated to report fourth-quarter results later Wednesday. The company is seen reporting earnings of $1.42 a share, down from $1.54 a share in the same quarter of 2011, on revenue of nearly $12.7 billion.
Exxon and Chevron are expected to report Feb. 1, with Exxon seen posting a profit of $1.99 a share, up 2 cents from $1.97 a share in the same period of 2011. Revenue for the quarter is seen slipping to $117 billion from $121 billion.
Chevron is expected to report earnings of $3.07 per share, up from $2.58 a share a year earlier, on $68.3 billion in revenue.
The SPDR Energy Select Sector , an exchange fund focused on energy names, was flat. Crude-oil futures rose 0.2% at $97.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
No comments:
Post a Comment