Tag Archives: Thirdquarter

Oil giant Shell reveals plans to hike dividend as it reports third-quarter profit

The logo of Shell on an oil storage silo, beyond railway tanker wagons at the company’s Pernis refinery in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

British oil major Shell reported a third-quarter profit Thursday, but lower refining and trading revenues brought an end to its run of record quarterly earnings.

Shell posted adjusted earnings of $9.45 billion for the three months through to the end of September, meeting analyst expectations of $9.5 billion according to Refinitiv. The company posted adjusted earnings of $4.1 billion over the same period a year earlier and notched a whopping $11.5 billion for the second quarter of 2022.

The oil giant said it planned to increase its dividend per share by around 15% for the fourth quarter 2022, to be paid out in March 2023. It also announced a new share buyback program, which is set to result in an additional $4 billion of distributions and expected to be completed by its next earnings release.

Shares of Shell are up over 41% year-to-date.

The London-headquartered oil major reported consecutive quarters of record profits through the first six months of the year, benefitting from surging commodity prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Shell warned in an update earlier this month, however, that lower refining and chemicals margins and weaker gas trading were likely to negatively impact third-quarter earnings.

On Thursday, the company said a recovery in global product supply had contributed to lower refining margins in the third quarter, and gas trading earnings had also fallen.

“The trading and optimisation contributions were mainly impacted by a combination of seasonality and supply constraints, coupled with substantial differences between paper and physical realisations in a volatile and dislocated market,” Shell said in a its earnings release.

Change in leadership

The group’s results come soon after it was announced CEO Ben van Beurden will step down at the end of the year after nearly a decade at the helm.

Wael Sawan, currently Shell’s director of integrated gas, renewables and energy solutions, will become its next chief executive on Jan. 1.

A dual Lebanese-Canadian national, Sawan has held roles in downstream retail and various commercial projects during his 25-year career at Shell.

“I’m looking forward to channelling the pioneering spirit and passion of our incredible people to rise to the immense challenges, and grasp the opportunities presented by the energy transition,” Sawan said in a statement on Sept. 15, adding that it was an honor to follow van Beurden’s leadership.

“We will be disciplined and value focused, as we work with our customers and partners to deliver the reliable, affordable and cleaner energy the world needs.”

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China reports third-quarter GDP grew by 3.9%, beating expectations

Shipping containers sit in stacks at the Zhangjiagang Port on October 21, 2022.

Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING — China reported Monday that third-quarter gross domestic product grew by 3.9% from a year ago, beating expectations.

The data was originally set for release on Oct. 18, but was delayed late on Oct. 17 with no explanation. China’s Communist Party held its 20th National Congress from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22.

Analysts polled by Reuters prior to Oct. 18 had expected China to report GDP growth of 3.4% for the third quarter.

The officially released 3.9% year-on-year growth for the third quarter marked a pickup from 0.4% in the second quarter, bringing year-to-date growth to 3%.

That’s still well below the official target of around 5.5%.

Covid controls on business activity, especially in the second quarter of the year, have weighed on growth and prompted many investment banks to slash their full-year forecasts to around 3%.

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Retail sales grew by 2.5% in September from a year ago, slowing from August and missing expectations of 3.3% according to the Reuters poll.

The urban unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5% in September. That of people ages 16 to 24 remained far higher at 17.9%.

Industrial production rose by 6.3%, well above the 4.5% increase expected by Reuters.

Fixed asset investment rose by 5.9% for the first three quarters of the year, a touch below Reuters’ forecast of 6%.

Investment in real estate declined by 8% during that time, greater than the 7.4% year-on-year decline recorded over the first eight months of the year.

Year-to-date investment in infrastructure sped up to 8.6% year-on-year growth as of September, from 8.3% as of August. That in manufacturing held about the same pace.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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Opinion: Apple and Amazon are struggling, so investors may want to look to these tech stocks instead

Both Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. had rare earnings disappointments on Thursday, which may lead investors to look in another direction for big holiday returns.

This column warned that the two tech giants could stumble this quarter, as the supply-chain issues that had been affecting other industries took a bite out of both Apple
AAPL,
+2.50%
and Amazon
AMZN,
+1.59%.
It appears those issues will continue into the normally huge holiday quarter for the consumer-focused companies, while a natural rival of both — Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.37%
— offered a huge holiday forecast just a few days earlier.

Read: The Tech earnings boom is fizzling out, as Apple and Amazon face the same issues as everyone else.

Apple reported a rare revenue miss — its first since the December quarter of 2018 — with revenue of $83.4 billion coming in $1.7 billion below analysts’ estimates of $85.1 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter. Since the pandemic, Apple no longer gives revenue guidance, but the bulk of the revenue shortfall came from iPhone sales, which came in $2.1 billion below analysts expectations. Sales of Macs and iPads, however, exceeded estimates.

Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told analysts that the ongoing supply constraints hurt its revenue by around $6 billion, and that the impact will be larger in the December quarter. The products most effected were the iPhone, the iPad and the Mac, and the constraints were caused by both semiconductor shortages and manufacturing disruptions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon reported an even sharper-than-expected drop in earnings, with a huge surge in expenses, as it tried to shore up staff and dealt with unprecedented supply-chain issues. Amazon’s costs to fulfill and ship orders increased to $18.5 billion from $14.71 billion. Amazon reported third-quarter earnings per share of $6.12, a drop of nearly 50% from the year-ago and below analysts’ average expectations of $8.90 a share.

These higher fulfillment and employee costs, like Apple’s supply-chain constraints, will continue in the fourth quarter, usually the biggest for consumer-related tech companies. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement that Amazon expects to incur “several billion dollars of additional costs” in its consumer business, as it deals with “labor supply shortages, increased wage costs, global supply-chain issues, and increased freight and shipping costs.”

The shares of both tech mega stars — which both trade over $1 trillion in market cap — tumbled in after-hours trading, with Apple falling 3.65% while Amazon lost 3.89%.

While neither company is seeing any loss of demand — in fact the opposite is occurring because they cannot keep up with demand amid the global shipping and product constraints — the news was a downer for investors counting on them to finish the year strongly. As consumer-focused companies could have a harder time meeting all the demand in the upcoming holiday season, corporate-focused tech giants — such as Microsoft — could be a safer play for now.

Earlier this week, Microsoft topped $20 billion in net income for the first time, with PC revenue beating expectations and the company’s fast-growing cloud business still its biggest driver. The company’s shares were up slightly in after-hours trading Thursday and were on the way to potentially surpassing Apple in market value in regular trading hours on Friday.

Microsoft is not the only software name trending higher heading into the holidays. Atlassian
TEAM,
+1.08%,
the maker of team collaboration software, saw its shares soar 9% on Thursday after blowing past Wall Street’s estimates and seeing revenue for its its cloud-based products soar 50%. On Wednesday, cloud-based software provider ServiceNow Inc.
NOW,
+3.45%
beat estimates, and one analyst on Wall Street raised its price target; its shares climbed 3.45% on Thursday.

Investors looking to stock up on tech stocks for the holidays might want to move away from the traditional players — like Apple and Amazon — and look at enterprise software developers and other cloud-computing players. They may be a bit more boring, but they are poised for more growth in the coming fourth quarter, and could be better stocking-stuffers than the more consumer-focused giants.

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What GM, Ford investors should know ahead of third-quarter earnings

The General Motors world headquarters office is seen at Detroit’s Renaissance Center.

Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images

DETROIT – Both General Motors and Ford Motor are expected to report relatively solid third-quarter earnings Wednesday despite an ongoing global disruption of supply chains, including a shortage of semiconductor chips that have depleted vehicle inventories but boosted profits this year.

Both of the Detroit automakers have managed as well as they could during the disruptions, allowing them to raise their earnings expectations for the year on record vehicle pricing and profits amid surprisingly resilient consumer demand. That’s expected to be a continuing trend as the automotive industry rebuilds inventory as more production comes back online in the coming weeks and quarters, according to analysts.

“Not only should both benefit from favorable fundamentals amid an up cycle environment, but both have a significant opportunity ahead to improve perception on their long-term positioning in an EV/AV world,” Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy said in an investor note last week.

JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman last week raised estimates considerably to forecast a large beat in the case of GM and by increasing Ford estimates to more modestly above consensus from in line. However, he noted that Ford’s performance was expected to increase during the quarter, while GM’s was expected to have declined.

Here’s what Wall Street analysts expect from each automaker’s third-quarter earnings as well as other things investors should know about before GM reports ahead of the market opening Wednesday, followed by Ford after the markets close.

Wall Street estimates

Analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv expect GM to report earnings per share of 96 cents and revenue of $26.5 billion, down 25.3% compared to a year earlier.

Ford is expected to have earnings per share of 27 cents on automotive revenue of $32.5 billion, down 6.2%, according to Refinitiv.

Second-half expectations

Executives with both GM and Ford have said they expect the second half of the year to be weaker than the first six months.

GM previously warned investors that its North American wholesale volumes would be down by about 200,000 units in the second half of 2021 compared with the first half. It has continued to maintain its financial guidance for the year, including adjusted earnings of between $11.5 billion and $13.5 billion, or $5.40 to $6.40 a share. It earned about $6.2 billion, or $4.21 a share, during the first six months of the year.

GM said it expects to take a hit of between $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion during the second half of the year, due to a $1.5 billion to $2 billion rise in commodity costs and lower earnings from its financial arm.

In July, Ford raised its guidance for the year, but it told investors the second half of the year would be weaker than the first regarding its operating profit, which was at $5.9 billion through June. At that time, the company raised its guidance for full-year adjusted earnings before taxes by about $3.5 billion, to between $9 billion and $10 billion.

Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner expects both automakers to guide to the high-end of their previous ranges, if not higher.

“We expect both Ford and GM to beat 3Q consensus estimates and maintain/raise full-year guidance. Beyond that, we see several potential catalysts on the horizon for both companies,” he said in an investor note Monday, citing electric and autonomous vehicle developments.

EVs/AVs

While the automakers are pouring billions into electric and autonomous vehicles, the segment won’t contribute much to their third-quarter earnings.

Both automakers during the last quarter released significant new details about their plans for both of the emerging sectors, including an $11 billion investment from Ford in U.S. facilities to produce electric vehicles and batteries.

GM significantly outlined financial targets such as doubling revenue and increasing profit margins to between 12% and 14% by 2030 during an investor day earlier this month. Its majority-owned subsidiary Cruise also said it expects to begin charging for a robotaxi service as early as next year in San Francisco, pending final regulatory approval.

During the quarter, GM also said it would recognize an estimated recovery in the third-quarter that will offset $1.9 billion of $2.0 billion in charges associated with an ongoing recall of its Chevrolet Bolt EVs as part of a settlement with LG, which produced the defective batteries.

Partial builds

Ford’s stock is up about 80% this year, so investors will be watching for any additional drag on the automaker heading into next year.

They’ll also want to know any updates regarding production and shipments of Ford’s F-Series pickups, which the automaker, like GM, has been partially building to finish when chips become available.

Steve Carlisle, GM’s North American chief executive, last week the automaker is more than halfway through shipping newly assembled pickups that it had parked due to a shortage of semiconductor chips, according to Reuters.

When reporting a year-over-year sales decline of 32.8% for the third-quarter earlier this month, GM said the semiconductor chip situation was improving. Nov. 1 is expected to mark the first time since February that none of GM’s North American assembly plants will be idled due to the chip shortage. However, two remain down for retooling and some are operating on less shifts.

GM’s stock is up by about 40% in 2021.

– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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Bank report $2.3 billion third-quarter profit

UBS has beaten analyst expectations in the third quarter as its wealth management division continued to outperform.

The Swiss bank on Tuesday reported net profit attributable to shareholders of $2.3 billion for the period, up from $2 billion in the second quarter. Analysts had expected the figure to come in at $1.57 billion, according to estimates collected by Refinitiv.

It marks a 9% increase in net profit from the same period a year before.

Describing the latest quarter, CEO Ralph Hamers told CNBC Tuesday: “There is continued momentum in the markets. We are getting more clients, clients are looking for alternative investments — we have been able to support them through the ecosystem of opportunities.”

The bank’s wealth management division provided a significant boost to its results once again, with invested assets rising to $3.2 trillion. The division’s profit before tax increased 43% to $1.5 billion.

Here are other highlights for the third quarter:

  • CET 1 ratio, a measure of bank solvency, reached 14.9% versus 14.5% in the previous three months.
  • Operating income came in at $9.1 billion versus $9 billion in the previous quarter.
  • Return on equity, a measure of financial performance, stood at 15.3% from 13.7% in the second quarter.

Shares in the bank are around higher by about 24% year-to-date.

Going forward, Hamers said he expects further business activity to support the bank.

“We do expect, on the M&A side, on the advisory side, and even on the equity capital markets side, it continues momentum there — investors are still seeking to invest,” Hamers told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore.

“We expect them to stay constructive for the foreseeable couple of months.”

On the crypto sidelines

When it comes to crypto, which has gained in popularity as some investors look for sizeable and fast returns, Hamers said there was still too much uncertainty for the bank to offer these products to their clients.

Last week, bitcoin notched a fresh all-time high as investors cheered the successful launch of the first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund.

“At this moment, we stay on the sidelines there,” the UBS CEO said. “We feel that the market hasn’t really come to a point where people truly understand the underlying factors that influence the value of some of these cryptocurrencies.”

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Third-quarter GDP data grows 4.9%, missing expectations

Aerial view of coal being unloaded from a cargo ship at Lianyungang port on Oct. 14, 2021 in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province of China.

Wang Jianmin | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s third-quarter GDP grew a disappointing 4.9% as industrial activity rose less than expected in September.

The National Bureau of Statistics said Monday that gross domestic product grew 4.9% in the third quarter from a year ago. That missed expectations for a 5.2% expansion, according to analysts polled by Reuters.

Industrial production rose by 3.1% in September, below the 4.5% expected by Reuters. 

“Since entering the third quarter, domestic and overseas risks and challenges have increased,” Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a press conference Monday in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.

The power shortage had a “certain impact” on normal production, Fu said, but he added that the economic impact “is controllable.”

However, retail sales beat expectations, rising 4.4% in September from a year ago. The Reuters poll predicted 3.3% growth.

Fixed asset investment for the first three quarters of the year came in weaker than expected, up 7.3% from a year ago versus the expected 7.9% figure, data from the national bureau showed.

The urban unemployment rate in September was 4.9%. However, that for those aged 16 to 24 remained far higher, at 14.6%.

China’s growth outlook

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“On the regulation side, we think the authorities will better manage the pace and intensity of the regulatory campaign in order to complete major economic and social development targets set for this year and the next 5-10 years,” he said. “Officials can better communicate with the market about the motives behind the regulatory push and telegraph future regulatory hotspots, in our view.”

— CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee contributed to this report.

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