Exxon Mobil Cuts Share Buy-Backs, One Chart Shows Its Massive Size

With a nearly $370 billion market capitalization and a massive share buyback program, Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM has been an outlier among its peers, as illustrated by Capital Market Labs:

In the fourth quarter alone, the company spent $3 billion on share repurchases. However, after announcing Q4 results, the company said it would be cutting share buy-backs to $1 billion in the first quarter.

Amid plunging oil prices and a Q4 profit that fell 21 percent, the company still managed to beat analyst expectations, but difficulties may be on the horizon.

Speaking on CNBC Monday, Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit thought “things are going to be a lot worse because of oil and gas prices” in 2015. For every $10 change in oil prices, “Exxon Mobil earnings are impacted by about $4-to-$5 billion."

Gheit felt that it would be best to avoid oil stocks, however, for market-weighted investors, Exxon Mobil is a favorable position to take when making a “flight to quality.”

Exxon Mobil Corporation recently traded at $88.31, up 1.02 percent.