Woodside Earnings: Strong Dividend on an Earnings Beat and Another Scarborough Sell-Down

No-moat Woodside reported stronger-than-expected underlying 2023 net profit after tax, down 37% to USD 3.3 billion (AUD 2.63 per share) against our USD 3.0 billion (AUD 2.33 per share) expectations. Lower-than-anticipated depreciation largely accounts for the profit beat, and we see no long-term implication for our unchanged AUD 45 fair value estimate. The weaker 2023 result reflects a 26% decline in average pricing to USD 66.60 per barrel of oil equivalent, easily offsetting a 19% increase in production to a record 187 million barrels of oil equivalent.