Exxon, Chevron Earnings Preview: Improving Cash To Secure Dividends, Cut Debt – Investing.com

Exxon, Chevron Earnings Preview: Improving Cash To Secure Dividends, Cut Debt – Investing.com

The recovery in over the past year has eased financial pressures on big producers, who suffered one of their worst annual performances in decades during the pandemic. When two of the energy sector's supermajors report Q1 earnings on Friday, Apr. 30, ahead of the open, investors will be focusing on their cash generation, something that's needed to balance their books.

The latest trend in oil markets suggests that energy stocks have passed the worst of the pandemic-driven crisis, as oil demand slowly increases, fuelled by both OPEC+ production cuts and countries reopening after COVID-19 lockdowns.

Yet, the improving demand-supply equation doesn't mean that the largest U.S. oil producers—ExxonMobil (NYSE:) and Chevron (NYSE:NYSE:)—are out of the woods. The pandemic has loaded their balance sheets with debt as they borrowed to cope with the 2020 crash in oil markets and fund their dividends.