The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Speaking of CVX—it had a bad 1Q14, but this was anticlimactic due to the company’s “pre-announcement” PR on 4/9/14 (#msg-100327453); from the 5/2/14 WSJ piece on the actual 1Q14 results:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304677904579537441007193548

Chevron Corp. said its first-quarter profit fell 27% as revenue slipped amid lower oil prices and production. The results fell short of expectations.

"Our first quarter earnings were down from a year ago, primarily due to lower prices and volumes for crude oil," Chairman and Chief Executive John Watson said.
The company said its global oil-equivalent production for the period fell to 2.59 million barrels a day from the year-earlier tally of 2.65 million, as normal field declines and unplanned downtime related to poor weather--mainly in Kazakhstan--more than offset production increases in Nigeria, Angola and the U.S.

…Chevron reported earnings of $4.51 billion, or $2.36 a share, down from $6.18 billion, or $3.18 a share, in the year-earlier period.

Despite all this, CVX is trading near its all-time high. CVX recently raised the dividend by 7% to an annualized payout of $4.28.