Exxon Mobil profit drops 38 percent but beats estimates

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Friday reported a 38 percent drop in quarterly profit that still beat Wall Street's expectations as cost cuts partly offset declining crude oil prices.

Shares of Exxon were down 1.9 percent at $85.30 in afternoon trading.

The company reported third-quarter net income of $2.65 billion, or 63 cents per share, compared with $4.24 billion, or $1.01 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected a profit of 58 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Earnings fell in all of the company's divisions, including the refining arm, which has generally bolstered profits when oil prices are low.

Production fell about 3 percent to 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Exxon's refineries processed about 2 percent less crude oil during the quarter than it did a year earlier.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)