•October 30, 2018
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) on Tuesday reported third-quarter net income of $84 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.
On a per-share basis, the Oklahoma City-based company said it had profit of 7 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 19 cents per share.
“Chesapeake continues to make significant progress on our strategic priorities, as demonstrated by our improved cash flow from operations, which was more than 50 percent higher than the 2017 third quarter due to higher average realized commodity prices and 13 percent growth in our adjusted oil production,” said Doug Lawler, Chesapeake’s president and CEO. “We plan to focus the vast majority of our projected 2019 activity on our high-margin, higher-return oil opportunities in the PRB and Eagle Ford Shale, while decreasing capital and activity directed toward our natural gas portfolio, which will generate additional free cash flow. Our capital expenditures for 2018 remain on track, as we execute on our priorities of reducing leverage, increasing margins and reaching sustainable positive cash flow, and we expect continued progress in 2019.”
The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 16 cents per share.
The natural gas company posted revenue of $2.42 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $1.2 billion, which also beat Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.16 billion.
The company’s shares closed at $3.72. A year ago, they were trading at $3.77.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CHK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CHK