Saudi Aramco Keeps Huge Dividend Despite Lower Profit

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company by production and market value, reported on Tuesday a 15.4% annual decline in third-quarter earnings, due to lower oil prices and weaker refining margins, but maintained its $31.1 billion quarterly dividend, most of which goes to the Kingdom. Aramco, which is also the world’s top crude oil exporter, booked a net income of $27.564 billion for the third quarter, down from $32.583 billion for the same period last year. Despite the drop, the earnings beat a $26.89 billion average consensus estimate…