Exxon may soon pass GE as world's biggest company

[DesertFox]

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp , the world's largest listed oil company, may soon surpass General Electric Co to become the world's biggest company, period, if energy prices continue to rally.

On Thursday the whiff of $40 oil helped Exxon shares reach a two-year high of $44.24, giving the company a market value of $287 billion.

GE, which makes everything from light bulbs, mortgages and sitcoms to jet engines and power-plant turbines, still has a comfortable lead at $311 billion, about 8 percent higher. But analysts say its place at the top is in jeopardy.

"You don't need that much of a jump (by Exxon) for this to happen," Standard & Poor's equities analyst Howard Silverblatt said. "Oil prices are going up, while GE has a lot of financing businesses, where rising rates can interfere with earnings."


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[Estragon]

XOM is a very well managed company, and the merger dramatically increased its productivity.

GE is also well managed, though, even since Jack Welch retired.

At present, their relative capitalization is almost the same, with GE at $308.5 billion vs XOM's 279.7 bil. With oil prices peaking, it is hard to imagine XOM overtaking GE in the next year or two.

[EagleTed]

XOM is more cyclical than GE, so anything's possible. Also, GE just spun-off a division and has plans to spin-off more. That should effect it's market cap, unless they use the money to buy businesses just as big as the ones they're spinning off.

In truth, while it's fun to see who's the biggest company in the world, it's virtually meaningless. Frankly, I look for WMT to top both companies eventually, as it has in the past. WMT still has room to grow, while both GE and XOM are finding it increasingly difficult. Another large merger by XOM would be nixed by governments all over the world, imo, while GE is bumping against basic physics. Something that large can't keep growing, maybe?

[EagleTed]

UPDATE:

XOM now has a Market Cap of 369.28 Billion
GE now has a Market Cap of 384.25 Billion

It's gotten to be a tight race for no. 1.
However, with oil prices falling and XOM buying back millions of share,
GE should keep the lead.