On Thursday, Wells Fargo maintained an Overweight rating on ExxonMobil (NYSE: NYSE:XOM) and increased the price target to $138 from $126. This adjustment follows a recent 8-K filing by ExxonMobil, detailing its first-quarter earnings considerations.
The revised price target reflects the analyst's expectations of better performance in the Exploration and Production (EP) and Specialty segments based on the updated commodity deck.
ExxonMobil, which released its Q1'24 Earnings Considerations on Wednesday, is set to hold a conference call with sell-side analysts on Friday morning. The Wells Fargo analyst's upward revision of the Q1'24 earnings per share estimate is slightly above the implied midpoint earnings following the 8-K release. The estimates are roughly in line with the midpoint of implied earnings from the prior forecast.
The updated assessment by Wells Fargo suggests that the actual commodity prices for the first quarter were consistent with the earnings potential indicated by ExxonMobil. The implied midpoints for the company's EP, Chemical Products (CP), and Specialty Products (SP) were all marginally higher than the firm's estimates.
The analyst noted that the last quarter's corporate expense exceeded the guidance range of $300-500 million. This was not reflected in the implied ranges provided by ExxonMobil. Despite this, the overall outlook for the company appears positive, leading to the raised price target on the stock.
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