Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), the oil giant posted a surprise increase in Q3 earnings earnings despite a bigger-than-expected drop in revenue, as improved downstream margins helped the company offset the impact of lower crude prices on its upstream business. CVX is trading in a 52-week range of $106.65 to $135.10. Net income attributable to Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) rose to $5.59 billion, or $2.95 per diluted share, from $4.95 billion, or $2.57 per diluted share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Capital IQ had expected a profit of $2.53 per share.The company said foreign-currency effects increased earnings in the latest quarter by $366 million, compared with a decrease of $276 million a year earlier. Total revenue and other income slipped to $54.68 billion from $58.50 billion a year earlier, missing the $60.56 consensus estimate of three analysts. U.S. upstream earnings of $929 million were down $97 million from a year earlier, as gains on asset sales, lower exploration expenses and higher crude oil production were more than offset by lower crude oil prices and higher operating expenses. Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.57 million barrels per day in Q3 2014, down slightly from 2.59 million barrels per day a year earlier. U.S. downstream operations earned $809 million, compared with earnings of $249 million a year earlier. "The increase was mainly due to higher margins on refined product sales, primarily reflecting higher production volumes in refining and higher marketing and trading margins," Chevron said.Visa Inc (NYSE:V) shares rose Friday to their highest level ever, after the payments-technology giant was upgraded by analysts at Argus to a buy investment rating from a hold. Shares of Visa Inc (NYSE:V) were up 1% to $239.04 in recent trading shortly after the opening bell Friday after hitting the fresh high at $240. Its previous high had been $239.28. Argus set a price target on the stock of $260 a share, which marks a potential upside of 9.9% from its Thursday closing price.Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE:NWL) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $0.58, three cents ahead of the analyst consensus on Capital IQ and up from $0.52 per share in the year ago quarter. Sales were $1.48 billion, shy of the Street view of $1.52 billion, and just higher than the $1.47 billion posted in the prior year."We delivered another solid quarter with good sales growth and strong earnings," said Michael Polk, Newell Rubbermaid's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our strategy of accelerating advertising and promotion in support of our brands is working, delivering third quarter core sales growth of over 7 percent on our key Writing, Commercial Products and Tools segments and normalized earnings per share growth for the total company of over 11 percent. Since we began to significantly increase brand support in the second quarter of 2014, our global core growth has been 3.7 percent, despite exiting certain markets and product lines in Europe and pulling back on less profitable volume in North America."For the full year 2014, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE:NWL) reaffirmed its outlook for core sales growth in the range of 3% to 4% and adjusted EPS of $1.94 to $2.00 per share. The Street stands at $2.00 per share in earnings. For the full year 2015, the company is guiding for core sales growth of 3.5% to 4.0% and EPS of $2.16 to $2.22 per share. The Street is at $2.20 per share.
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