The price of ExxonMobil stock has fallen significantly in response to supply/demand fundamentals, but the U.S. giant’s CEO Darren Woods is still hopeful that his counter-cyclical investment strategy will pay off in the long run, Bloomberg commented on January 28.
Nevertheless, the short-term outlook for the company appears to be shaky. ExxonMobil, which is the world’s largest publicly traded international oil company (IOC), saw its share prices drop to the lowest level recorded since October 2010 at the beginning of the week.
ExxonMobil stock is not likely to gain much ground any time soon, as weak demand and ample supplies are still keeping oil prices down. But CEO Darren Woods believes now is the time to invest in oil and gas assets rather than meet shareholders’ demands for higher returns.
Noah Barrett, an energy analyst for the Janus Henderson asset management firm, said that Woods was following this course in the hope of seeing his investments pay off in the mid-to-late 2020s. “Right now, there’s a higher value placed on generating cash flow today,” he told Bloomberg on January 28.