Refineries make Chevron the better choice

Article Excerpt

The slowing global economy continues to weigh on oil prices. That, in turn, has hurt the stock prices of oil producers. We still advise investors to maintain some exposure to oil. For new buying, however, we prefer integrated producers like Chevron over exploration firms like Apache. That’s because low oil prices improve the profitability of Chevron’s refineries, which helps cut its risk. CHEVRON CORP. $117 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $222.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. by revenue, after ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM). In the second quarter of 2019, Chevron’s production rose 9.1% to a record 3.08 million barrels a day (60% oil, 40% gas) from 2.83 million barrels a year earlier. That increase reflects higher production from the Permian basin in the U.S. and the recent start up of two Australian liquid natural gas projects. However, due to lower…