Exxon 1st Qtr 2008 Earnings

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Record oil prices netted Exxon Mobil $10.89 billion in the first quarter, sharply higher than a year earlier but short of Wall Street expectations and below what was needed to set a new all-time profit record.
The sheer size of the Exxon profit reported Thursday will still likely attract attention from consumer groups and lawmakers, who have been arguing for higher taxes on oil companies amid soaring gas and oil prices.
Oil passed $100 a barrel for the first time ever last quarter, and traded sharply higher from prior-year levels.
While Exxon made more money from producing oil this quarter, it made much less money from selling gasoline, as gas prices have not risen at as fast a pace as oil prices.
"Higher crude oil and natural gas realizations, driven by record worldwide crude oil prices, were partly offset by lower refining and chemical margins, lower production volumes and higher operating costs," Rex Tillerson, the company's chief executive, said in a statement.

The company posted first-quarter net income of $10.89 billion, or $2.03 a share. That's up 17% from the $9.28 billion, or $1.62 a share it earned a year earlier, but it missed the earnings per share consensus forecast of $2.14 from analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call.
Revenue hit $116.85 billion, up 34% from a year earlier when sales hit $87.2 billion. The revenue was short of forecasts of $124.4 billion.
The profit was still enough to be the second highest U.S. corporate profit on record, falling just short of the record $11.66 billion Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) earned in the fourth quarter. The profit came to $1,385 a second, enough to buy nearly 382 gallons of gas at current prices.