Exxon Posts Record Profit

Outstanding!

Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago.

The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world’s largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007.

The extraordinary full-year profit wasn’t a surprise given crude’s triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis.

It’s good to see a strong American company that employs thousands of Americans continue to be successful. 

Bear in mind that this is based on $477,359,000,000 in revenue.  That’s a 9.47% profit margin.  Hardly obscene.  Exxon is just a huge American company and we should be happy that it is doing well. 

Also, don’t forget this:

The Corporation distributed a total of $40.1 billion to shareholders in 2008, up 12% or $4.4 billion from 2007. This reflects a 13% increase in per share dividends versus 2007 and an overall reduction in shares outstanding of 7.5%.