PSX - Phillips 66 plunges after Q4 earnings miss as refining margin declined

Phillips 66 ( NYSE: PSX ) is Tuesday's biggest loser on the S&P 500, -6.1% , after the refiner missed Wall Street estimates for Q4 adjusted earnings, despite rising to $4.00/share from $2.96 in the year-ago quarter.

Q4 adjusted pretax profit jumped 49% Y/Y to $2.61B but came in below $2.83B analyst consensus estimate; by segment, refining rose more than four-fold to $1.63B; midstream +0.9% Y/Y to $674M; marketing and specialties up 8% to $539M; chemicals down 88% to $52M.

Q4 realized margins declined to $19.73/bbl from $26.87/bbl in Q3, mostly due to lower market crack spreads and clean product differentials; Q4 global market crack spread, excluding RIN costs, fell to $23.58/bbl from $28.18/bbl in Q3.

Phillips 66 ( PSX ) said operating expenses in the quarter climbed 9.5% Y/Y to $1.26B.

The company generated $4.8B in cash from operations in Q4; excluding working capital impacts, operating cash flow totaled $2.7B.

Phillips 66 ( PSX ) said it expects to capture more than $300M of commercial and operating synergies from the acquisition of DCP Midstream, which is expected to close in Q2 and increase the company's economic interest to 86.8%.

Phillips 66 ( PSX ) shares have lost 1% so far this year while gaining 18% during the past year .

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