What happened
Poised to end the week on a down note, shares of Chevron (CVX -0.52%) are falling today in response to the company's fourth-quarter 2022 earnings report. While there was a lot to celebrate, it seems investors are acutely focused on the lower-than-expected earnings.
As of 12:24 a.m. ET, shares of Chevron are down 5%.
So what
Failing to meet bottom-line expectations, Chevron reported adjusted earnings per share of $4.09 for Q4 2022, lower than the analysts' estimate of $4.33. While the company disappointed on the bottom of the income statement, it exceeded expectations on the top line. Chevron reported Q4 2022 revenue of $56.5 billion, beating analysts' estimate of $52.7 billion.
There were several other bright sports in the company's report as well. For one, Chevron reported $12.5 billion in cash from operations for the quarter, contributing to Chevron's achieving a company record for annual operational cash flow of $49.6 billion. With regards to free cash flow, Chevron reported $8.7 billion for Q4 2022, resulting in 2022 free cash flow of $37.6 billion -- a year-over-year increase of 78.2%.
Now what
While the bottom-line miss is driving some to exit their positions today, investors looking to power their portfolios with a leading energy stock would be wise to consider shares of Chevron. Besides its strong commitment to rewarding shareholders via the dividend, Chevron's stock is currently on sale, trading at 10.8 times forward earnings.
