Analyst - Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Toyota Motors, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., and Royal Dutch Shell PLC

Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM), Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS.A).

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Here are highlights from Thursday?s Analyst Blog:

Toyota?s 1^st Sales Gain in 15 Months

Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM) has posted its first year-over-year monthly sales gain across the globe in 15 months during October. The company?s sales rose 4% to more than 630,000 vehicles. In the U.S., the company?s sales fell 3.5%.

However, in the domestic market Toyota?s sales grew 15% helped by tax breaks for purchases of environment-friendly cars. In China, the company saw a staggering rise of 40% in sales. Toyota returned to profitability in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 ended Sep 30, 2009, after reporting losses since the third quarter of fiscal 2009.

The company posted a profit of ¥21.8 billion ($232 million) or ¥6.96 per share (7 cents) per share. This profit was attributed to government incentive programs across the world ? such as the U.S. ?Cash for Clunkers?? that helped the company recoup its market share. Consolidated revenue in the quarter dipped 24% to ¥4.54 trillion ($48 billion).

Automotive revenue fell 24% to ¥4.11 trillion ($44 billion) while Financial Services revenue shrank 17% to ¥307 billion ($4 billion). This was on the back of a decline in vehicle sales in each region as well as a negative impact from the appreciation of yen. Sales volume declined 16% to 1.64 million units due to a decrease in volume in all the regions except North America.

Petrobras Profit Exceeds Ests

Brazilian energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras S.A. announced encouraging third quarter results, helped by strong performance from the Supply segment. Earnings per ADR came in at R$1.66 (96 cents), comfortably beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 80 cents. However, on a year-over-year basis, Petrobras? earnings per ADR was down approximately 28.7%, hurt by lower prices of oil and natural gas. Still, they were better than the high double-digit earnings decline suffered by other majors such as ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS.A).

Total oil and gas production during the third quarter of 2009 reached 2,534 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, from 2,524 million in the previous quarter and 2,437 million in the same period of 2008. Compared to the third quarter of 2008, Brazilian oil and natural gas liquids production increased 4.8%, while international production was up 24.6%. However, Brazilian natural gas volumes were down 3.3% from the year-ago period, while international output during the quarter was down 6.0% year over year.

During the third quarter of 2009, the average sales price of oil in Brazil decreased 36.4% from the year-earlier period to $64 per barrel. Average sales price of international oil was down 16.9% year-over-year, reaching $57.16 per barrel. Regarding natural gas, average international sales price decreased 21.5% from the third quarter of 2008, while domestic price was down 61.5%.

Refining costs per barrel in Brazil was down 2.6% to $3.37 and internationally, it fell 45.2% to $3.51. Lifting cost per barrel moved down 24.5% in Brazil to $22.86, while overseas costs rose 9.4% to $5.6. Petrobras exported an average of 724,000 barrels of oil per day, 10.2% higher compared to the same period last year.

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