Oil and gas production management company Core Laboratories NV (CLB: Quote) on Wednesday reported a 29 percent increase in profit for the second quarter on higher revenues and operating margins.
Adjusted earnings beat analysts' estimates by a penny, while revenues missed their expectations. Looking ahead to the third quarter, the company forecast results mostly below analysts estimates.
According to the Netherlands-based Core Laboratories, the strong second-quarter results reflected its continued focus on worldwide crude-oil related and large LNG projects, especially those involved with the development of deepwater fields offshore West and East Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, Brazil, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Segment-wise, revenues from reservoir description operations, which focus on deepwater international and Gulf of Mexico crude-oil projects, grew 6 percent from last year to $126.46 million.
Production enhancement operations revenues, with more exposure to North American markets, recorded a 12 percent increase in revenues to $99.55 million. Revenues from the reservoir management operations increased 15 percent to $21.00 million from the prior-year quarter.
Core Laboratories' net income for the second quarter was $52.92 million or $1.11 per share, up from $40.45 million or $0.83 per share in the prior-year quarter.
Excluding items, net income rose to $55.35 million or $1.16 per share from $43.87 million or $0.90 per share in the same period last year. On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.15 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue for the quarter grew 9 percent to $247.01 million from $225.79 million in the year-ago quarter, but missed analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $251.43 million.
Core Laboratories noted that North American rig counts were down slightly from year-end 2011, while international rig counts were up only 4 percent over year-ago totals.
Operating margin for the quarter was 31 percent, an all-time quarterly high for Core Laboratories.
Looking ahead to the third quarter, Core Laboratories forecasts earnings in a range of $1.17 per share to $1.25 per share and revenues of about $250 million to $260 million. Analysts expect the company to earn $1.24 per share for the quarter on revenues of $263.72 million.
For fiscal 2012, Core expects to generate about $200 million in free cash flow, while increasing capital expenditures to an estimated $33 million.
CLB closed Wednesday's trading at $116.45, up $1.92 or 1.68 percent on a volume of 548,550 shares. In after-hours, the stock declined $0.22 or 0.19 percent to $116.23.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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