Exxon to claim bigger cash pile than Microsoft
05/09/2006 @ 10:45 am
Exxon Mobil is set to claim a bigger cash pile than Microsoft's, according to today's Wall Street Journal.
Move over, Microsoft Corp. Here comes a new cash king.
Thanks to soaring oil prices and record earnings, global energy titan Exxon Mobil Corp. appears to be on track to amass a cash mountain even taller than Microsoft's. That would give Exxon, the world's biggest company by stock-market value, bragging rights to one of the largest cash piles at a nonfinancial company.
Exxon's bank still isn't as big as Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s. Neither is Microsoft's. But Berkshire boss Warren Buffett doesn't pay out dividends or repurchase stock. Had Exxon followed the same policy in the past three boom years, its cash pile would be about double that of Berkshire. Instead, Exxon these days pays out more than $2 billion a month to shareholders.
Despite such an outlay, Exxon's total cash hit $31.9 billion at the end of March, compared with $28.6 billion at the end of 2005, according to figures filed late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That puts Exxon within reach of Microsoft's cash and short-term investments of $34.8 billion at the end of March. Exxon's cash doesn't include $4.6 billion it has set aside related to the appeal of a court case. Berkshire had cash and equivalents of nearly $43 billion at the end of March, giving it the largest cash holding for a nonfinancial company, according to research provider Capital IQ. Banks, insurers and other financial firms, by definition, are huge cash compilers. (A number of Berkshire-owned companies are financial firms, but Berkshire also owns consumer-goods makers and other types of companies.)
05/09/2006 @ 10:45 am
Exxon Mobil is set to claim a bigger cash pile than Microsoft's, according to today's Wall Street Journal.
Move over, Microsoft Corp. Here comes a new cash king.
Thanks to soaring oil prices and record earnings, global energy titan Exxon Mobil Corp. appears to be on track to amass a cash mountain even taller than Microsoft's. That would give Exxon, the world's biggest company by stock-market value, bragging rights to one of the largest cash piles at a nonfinancial company.
Exxon's bank still isn't as big as Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s. Neither is Microsoft's. But Berkshire boss Warren Buffett doesn't pay out dividends or repurchase stock. Had Exxon followed the same policy in the past three boom years, its cash pile would be about double that of Berkshire. Instead, Exxon these days pays out more than $2 billion a month to shareholders.
Despite such an outlay, Exxon's total cash hit $31.9 billion at the end of March, compared with $28.6 billion at the end of 2005, according to figures filed late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That puts Exxon within reach of Microsoft's cash and short-term investments of $34.8 billion at the end of March. Exxon's cash doesn't include $4.6 billion it has set aside related to the appeal of a court case. Berkshire had cash and equivalents of nearly $43 billion at the end of March, giving it the largest cash holding for a nonfinancial company, according to research provider Capital IQ. Banks, insurers and other financial firms, by definition, are huge cash compilers. (A number of Berkshire-owned companies are financial firms, but Berkshire also owns consumer-goods makers and other types of companies.)
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