Exxon’s dividend growth tradition faces worst price rout in a generation
EXXON-Mobil has boosted its dividend every April for at least a decade, delivering more than US$ 98 billion ( RM441 billion) directly to shareholders.
This year, the payout will likely rise again. The open question is by how much.
Exxon slowed quarterly dividend growth the last two years as the industry fought through the worst price rout in a generation. Now, with oil prices stuck at around US$ 50 a barrel and with little guarantee they’ll rise by much, analysts are debating whether the company remains conservative, boosting its free cash flow, or if it will reward investors who stuck with it through the lean times.
Exxon raised its dividend two cents a year ago to 75 cents. Now, Bloomberg Dividend Forecasts estimates the Irving, Texasbased company will announce a four cent boost on Wednesday. The current payout costs US$ 12.7 billion a year, more than at any other S& P 500 company. Each penny adds about US$ 170 million a year.
“We think a dividend hike of this magnitude is at risk given the deterioration of underlying cash flows through the industry downturn,” said Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at Macro Risk Advisors, in a note to clients. “No asymmetric risk looms larger in our view than dividend risk at the global oil majors.”
An Exxon spokesman declined to comment.
Since topping US$ 58 a barrel in January, the international Brent benchmark has slid about 10 per cent and futures markets don’t expect the price to approach US$ 58 territory again until 2024. While that could change if the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries prolongs its output cuts, the extraordinary rise of the US shale boom has tempered hopes for a large increase.
With that in mind, and given the small increase last April when Brent averaged about US$ 43, a four- cent dividend rise “sounds a little high,” said Brian Youngberg, an Edward Jones & Co. Analyst in St. Louis who has a hold rating on Exxon’s stock. He expects the company to split the difference, coming in with a three cent rise to 78 cents.
Exxon’s historical drive to deliver healthy payouts to investors is running headlong into management’s cautiousness about preserving cash for drilling during oil-market slumps, he said.
Since the market rout kicked off more than 2 1/2 years ago, Exxon’s free cash flow turned negative twice, the worst performance since the company assumed its modern form with the 1999 take- over of Mobil Corp., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Now, it’s coming off a quarter when analysts estimate the company racked up its largest quarterly profit increase in 14 years.
In its heyday in 2008, when Brent was marching toward US$ 147 a barrel, the company raked in more than US$ 17 billion in free cash flow during a single three-month period. That’s more than three times the US$ 5.31 billion it’s expected to disclose with first- quarter results on Friday, based on the estimates from two analysts in a Bloomberg survey. — WP-Bloomberg