Shares of Chevron Corp. CVX, +0.46% rallied 2.4% toward a record high in premarket trading Friday, after the oil and gas giant reported third-quarter profit, revenue and free cash flow beat expectations by wide margins, as total oil-equivalent production from U.S. upstream operations increased by nearly 50,000 barrels per day. Net income jumped to $11.23 billion, or $5.78 a share, from $6.11 billion, or $3.19 a share, in the year ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $5.56 beat the FactSet consensus of $4.89. Total revenue hiked up 49.1% to $66.64 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $57.36 billion. Total costs rose less than revenue, up 41.4% to $51.84 billion. Net per-day oil-equivalent production in its U.S. Upstream operations rose 49,000 to 1.18 million barrels, but was down 56,000 barrels to 1.85 million barrels for International Upstream. Free cash flow fell to $12.3 billion from $29.0 billion, but beat the FactSet consensus of $9.97 billion. The stock has run up 18.3% over the past three months through Thursday, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF XLE, +0.36% has climbed 18.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.61% has slipped 1.5%.
