By Jaime Llinares Taboada
Shell PLC on Thursday reported higher-than-expected profits for the first quarter of 2022, although the bottom-line result was hit by $3.9 billion of charges related to its exit from Russia.
The U.K. energy giant generated adjusted earnings of $9.13 billion in the first quarter, up from $6.39 billion in the fourth quarter. This was above the market consensus of $8.67 billion, provided by Vara Research and averaged from 25 analysts.
Shell’s performance improved on the back of higher realized prices, higher trading profits and lower operating expenses and tax, it said.
However, net profit fell to $7.12 billion from $11.46 billion as the company booked post-tax charges of $3.9 billion related to the phased withdrawal from Russian oil and gas operations.
Shell declared a dividend of $0.25 a share for the period, up from $0.24 in the fourth quarter of 2021, and said shareholder distributions in the second half will be in excess of 30% of operating cashflow.
Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT
This article was originally published by Marketwatch.com. Read the original article here.
