That compares with $9.41 billion, or $1.70 a share, a year ago. The previous record for U.S. corporate profit was set in the last quarter, when Exxon Mobil earned $11.68 billion. Revenue rose 35 percent to $137.7 billion. On average, analysts expected the company to earn $2.39 per share in the latest quarter on revenue of $131.4 billion. Exxon Mobil's results got a boost of $1.62 billion in the most-recent quarter from the sale of a natural gas transportation business in Germany. It also took a special, after-tax charge of $170 million for a punitive damages award related to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Excluding those items, third-quarter earnings amounted to $13.38 billion — nearly 15 percent above its previous profit record from the second quarter. As expected, Exxon Mobil reaped massive earnings from its exploration and production, or upstream, arm, where net income rose 48 percent to $9.35 billion.