QUESTION: Should I buy Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)?
ANSWER: Maybe not today, but XOM has a long-term place in any large cap global portfolio.
Why? XOM is just very good at what it does. Over the years it has copped a lot of flack for some of its organisation foibles (rank and yank, single focus, obsession with numbers), but it is this quirkiness that lets it achieve what it does, and what is does is very difficult.
Why not? TSA believes many listed corporations are takeover targets. However, no existing corporation could add value by taking over XOM, so there is no additional price catalyst. What about private equity? They think they are clever, but aren’t smart enough to add value to very technically challenged industry, and the technical folks (e.g. engineers) wouldn’t tolerate it.
Fun fact: XOM was the company responsible to inventing the predecessor of Powerpoint and bullet points. You can still identify ex-Exxon employees by their use of the phrase of “corky dots” instead of bullet point.
Contact TurnerStreet if you wish to buy our current asset allocation recommendation (we do cash and equity only allocations for our wholesale clients), and the list of the stocks TurnerStreet would buy for a typical wholesale client, or if you would like TurnerStreet to manage your equities and derivatives portfolio.