ExxonMobil has best year ever for any U.S. company

And all they pay is a measly .32 cents per quarterly dividend? Chevron’s (CVX) is trading just as week regarding price, and their quarterly dividend is almost double …

ExxonMobil has best year ever for any U.S. company even as Q4 profit falls – USATODAY.com ExxonMobil (XOM) on Thursday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company — $39.5 billion — even as earnings for the last quarter of 2006 declined 4%. The 2006 profit topped the previous record of $36.13 billion, which Exxon set in 2005. Revenue from the world’s largest publicly traded oil company rose to $377.64 billion for the year, surpassing the record $370.68 billion that Exxon posted in 2005. For the fourth quarter, net income slipped to $10.25 billion, or $1.76 a share, from $10.71 billion, or $1.71 a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded company, earned $1.69 a share. The average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters Estimates was $1.51 a share. Oil prices in the fourth quarter dropped from the record levels hit in July but were still robust, hovering around $60 a barrel — roughly in line with year-earlier levels. Natural gas prices, on the other hand, were sharply lower than in 2005. According to Reuters data, the average U.S. natural gas price was about $6.61 per million British thermal units in the fourth quarter, down from $12.77 a year earlier. Since the end of the 2006 third quarter, ExxonMobil shares are up 10.4%, outperforming the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s oil index, which has risen 8.8%.