Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. easily swept aside analyst estimates as the battered giants of the U.S. oil industry shook off two-and-a-half years of low oil prices and reported surging profits in the first quarter.
Exxon, the world’s biggest oil producer by market value, earned 95 cents a share, outperforming all but one of the 19 analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. driller, swung to a profit in a big way, scoring its largest quarterly gain since 2014 and a per-share result that was 64% higher than the average estimate.
