Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)

"Exxon Mobil Corporation is an American oil and gas company headquartered in Irving, a suburb of Dallas. It is the result of the merger in 1999 of the companies Exxon Corporation and Mobil Oil, respectively number 2 and 4 worldwide at the time behind BP. With a turnover of 425 billion dollars (the budget of the United States Department of Defense in 2008), for a profit of 45.22 billion, it is largely the most profitable company in the world. Its turnover is equivalent to the GDP of Switzerland and is thus higher than that of 179 of the 195 countries recognized by the UN.

ExxonMobil is also the world's largest market capitalization ($310 billion) ahead of Apple ($266 billion) and PetroChina. It represents approximately 2% of the NYSE capitalization. It competes with Royal Dutch Shell, whose equity and turnover are larger. Exxon Mobil nevertheless remains one of the largest oil "supermajors", whose oil and gas fields contain the equivalent of nearly 22.4 billion barrels, which constitutes the largest proven reserves for a private company.

Exxon Mobil owns 45 refineries in twenty-five countries which have a distillation capacity of 6.3 million barrels of oil per day. It also has 42,000 gas stations in more than 100 countries under the Exxon, Esso and Mobil brands. ExxonMobil is also a major producer of petrochemicals.

In 1870, John D. Rockefeller creates the Standard Oil, which controlled half of the world's oil distribution in 1900 and 85,% of the US domestic volume in 1904. Taking advantage of this monopoly on distribution, it put pressure on producers to lower the selling price. Standard Oil will be derived the name Esso, formed from the two initials (SO) banned from use in the USA In 1972 the group unified its identity under the name Exxon. In Europe and Canada the name "Esso" remains" (Source Wikipedia).

In order to explore new opportunities, ExxonMobil has gradually made investments in natural gas. In 2009, the company completed a $30 billion project to develop the world's largest natural gas field. The field is located in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. This diversification effort is linked to the scarcity of sources of supply of black gold. Indeed, uOnce peak oil is reached (which some experts say has already happened), production is expected to fall and oil prices to rise. With the rise ins prices, production costs would also increase. Moreover, as demand outstrips supply and oil prices skyrocket, alternative energy sources will become increasingly competitive. The oil industry has every incentive to diversify these revenue streams, just as Exxon Mobil is doing.

XOM offers a decent yield of 2.5%, slightly above its long-term average of 2.20%. The company is growing its distributions at an average annual rate of 7.93%, which is also decent. Exxon has also increased its dividend for 28 consecutive years, which is good, but not extraordinary. distribution ratio on the other hand is particularly low, at 25.49%. It is explained by the prudent growth of the dividend, but also by a strong increase in earnings per share over the past year. This ensures the payment and growth of distributions in the future. The last dividend paid on June 10th has just been increased by 6,80%.

With a volatility in CHF of only 12.83% and a beta of 0.49, XOM is a stock suitable for cautious investors looking for securities with little correlation with the marketThe low volatility in CHF is explained among other things by the Good protection offered by Exxon Mobil against dollar fluctuations.

Exxon has been beating the market since the '70s, benefiting from the oil shocks and the strong oil demand for the past ten years. In this respect, the stock's performance is particularly impressive during the "lost decade". Despite this, and thanks to excellent results, the PER over 12 rolling months is only 11.70. This is within the norm for the oil industry and within the norm for the last five years.

XOM offers an attractive valuation from an earnings perspective, and to some extent from a dividend perspective. distribution ratio is particularly attractive and the stock also offers good protection against dollar fluctuations. Exxon Mobil is a decent stock, but it is not yet able to stand out overall. For this reason, we are following XOM, but we do not consider it a buying opportunity at the moment.