Cabot Oil & Gas Q1 Profit Tops Views

reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter on Friday. The Houston, Texas-based company posted a quarterly profit of $40.3 million, or $0.10 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $107 million, or $0.26 per share. Excluding items, the company's profit declined to $0.12 per share from $0.26 per share. Its revenue dropped 8.8 percent to $464.8 million. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.03 per share on revenue of $417.3 million. Its production volume increased 43 percent to 171.4 billion cubic feet equivalent. Liquids production climbed 132 percent to 1.6 million barrels. Cash flow from operations climbed to $267.4 million in the first quarter, from $255.4 million in the year-ago quarter. The average estimate among 7 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.04 per share and revenue of $431.96 million. "Cabot delivered an impressive operational performance in the first quarter, highlighted by the 15 percent sequential growth in daily production volumes over the fourth quarter of last year," commented Dan O. Dinges, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer. "Our robust production levels were predicated on higher base-load volumes in the Marcellus during the quarter driven by increased seasonal demand and favorable natural gas sales contracts for the winter heating season; however, as we have communicated in the past, our plan is to reduce production levels beginning in the second quarter in response to the current environment throughout Appalachia." For the current quarter, the company projects net production of 1,375 to 1,425 million cubic feet per day for natural gas and 17,500 to 18,250 Bbls per day for liquids. Cabot shares rose 0.82 percent to $33.25 in pre-market trading.