Chevron CEO To Stay Put Past Retirement Age As Prelim Q2 Earnings Impresses Wall Street

Oil giant Chevron Corp. CVX on Sunday released a preview of its second-quarter results that showed adjusted earnings declining 47% year-over-year but ahead of the consensus estimate. The oil giant also announced a slew of management changes, including the extension of the tenure of its chief executive officer and the retirement of its chief financial officer.

What Happened: The San Ramon, California-based company reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.08 compared to the year ago's $5.82 and the previous quarter's $3.55.

The results exceeded the consensus estimate of $2.99 per share.

Reflecting the drop in oil prices in the quarter, the company's upstream as well as downstream earnings fell from the previous year as well as the year-ago quarter.

	Q2’23	Y-o-Y Change	Q-o-Q Change
Total net earnings	$6.01B	(-48.3%)	(-8.6%)
Upstream earnings	$4.94B	(-42.3%)	(-4.4)
Downstream earnings	$1.51B	(-54.4%)	(-16.3%)

Data Source: Chevron

The WTI-grade crude oil fell 4.24% in the second quarter amid worries about demand as a recession risk loomed large.

Chevron said Permian Basin production rose to a new quarterly record of 772,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Its deep resource inventory and advantages royalty position will likely deliver strong cash flow through 2040.

The company also noted that its shareholder distributions rose to a record $72 billion, comprising $2.8 billion in dividends and share repurchases of $4.4 billion. During the quarter, the company repurchased over 27 million shares.

Updating on the impending PDC Energy, Inc. PDCE acquisition, the company said it expects the deal to close in August.

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Management Changes: The company said it had waived the mandatory retirement age of 65 years for Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth.

"Mike has done an extraordinary job leading Chevron in a dynamic environment and delivering outstanding financial and operational results. We look forward to his continued leadership," said Dr. Wanda Austin, lead independent director.

A Chevron spokesperson told Benzinga in an emailed statement: "Board deliberations on leadership changes were complete. Given the proximity to the earnings release, we thought it appropriate, as many companies do, to put out certain Q2 performance highlights with the leadership announcement, including financial information.”

Chevron also said CFO Pierre Breber will retire in 2024 following a 35-year stint. Insider Eimear Bonner, currently serving as VP and chief technology officer and president of the Chevron Technical Center, will take over the CFO role, effective March 1, 2024.

Several other senior leadership changes were also announced in connection with the transition.

Chevron is scheduled to report its full second-quarter results on July 28 ahead of the market opening.

According to Benzinga Pro data, Chevron shares closed Friday’s session at $158.69, up 1.46%. The stock is down 9.9% for the year-to-date period.

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