Exxon Mobil the Majority of Exxon Mobil\'s

Exxon Mobil

The majority of Exxon Mobil's assets are tangible assets. The company held nearly $200 billion in property, plant and equipment as of December 31, 2010 and this represents two-thirds of the company's assets. Most of the other assets that Exxon Mobil has are investments, receivables, inventory and cash. Goodwill and other intangible assets do not even register on the company's balance sheet.

The net income from 2010 was $30.46 billion and from 2009 it was $19.28 billion, an improvement of 58%. The change was positive, representing an increase of $11.18 billion.

The change in cash flows for Exxon Mobil in 2010 was -$2.868 billion, compared with a decline of $20.744 billion the year previous. This represents an improvement of 86% in the change in cash and equivalents. Cash flow from operations improved $19.975 billion in 2010, an increase of 70.2% from the year previous. The cash flow from operations was $48.413 billion in 2010 and was $28.438 billion in 2009.

The stock price of Exxon Mobil is currently $79.78. One year ago the stock price was $61.86 and two years ago it was $73.78. Thus, from 2009-2010 Exxon's stock decreased $11.92, or 16.15%. From 2010-2011, Exxon Mobil's stock increased $17.92, or 28.9%. Cumulatively, over the two years the company's stock increased $6.00, or 8.13%.

There are a number of items that can cause the net income and the cash flow to differ. There are typically the non-cash items. Some examples of non-cash items include depreciation and amortization and changes to items such as accounts receivable, liabilities, inventories and other line items. Cash is also affected by investing and financing activities, such as the payment of dividends, which is noted on the income statement after the net income is calculated.

The cash flow statement is broken down into three parts because there are three unique types of activities that can affect an organization's cash balance. Operating activities are the activities that reflect the firm's operations -- what it does and how it makes money. Investing activities are those not associated directly with ongoing operations. Building a new factory, for example, is an example of an investing activity. Financing activities reflect the firm's sources of capital, both raised and returned to bondholders and shareholders. It is important for those studying the financial statements to break out these three different forms in order to understand how the firm's cash position in impacted by operating activities, how much investing the company is doing and to get a better breakdown of the firm's sources of capital.