Calpine Suffers Shaky Start to New Year

"Calpine turned in another quarter of solid plant performance," stated CEO Peter Cartwright. And the company "remains committed to the competitive power market and to creating long-term value for our customers and investors."

Ellinghaus did note one bright spot in Thursday's results. He pointed out that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization grew meaningfully from a year ago. But he also expressed concern about the company's negative cash flow -- totaling $173 million -- and the results overall.

Still, Calpine is in far better shape than it was just one year ago. Back then, investors were fretting so much over the company's liquidity that they paid little mind to quarterly results.

Since then, Cartwright said, Calpine has done a "wonderful job" of reducing debt, controlling costs and cutting back on growth.

"They do not appear to have any reasonable bankruptcy risk," he said. "The market is now waiting for signs that this company can return to being the kind of growth engine it had been" in the past.

But on Thursday, the market was impatient. Disappointed investors pushed shares of Calpine down 8.7% to $3.79 -- just 13 cents shy of a yearly low -- in very heavy trading.

Another Miss

Williams also lost ground after missing Wall Street estimates.

The Tulsa energy company -- once a bankruptcy risk itself -- grew "segment profit" by 10% to $276 million but still mustered an operating profit of just a penny a share. Analysts were looking for an 8-cent operating profit instead.

Still, the company improved on last year's losses. In addition to higher segment profits, lower interest expense -- and "significantly lower" power losses -- helped the bottom line.

"Earnings of 1 cent per share from continuing operations is an improvement," said Fredric E. Russell, a Tulsa money manager with no position in Williams' stock. "But it does suggest that the company still has a long, long way to go."

The market apparently felt the same. Shares of Williams slipped 3.3% to $10.58 halfway through Thursday's session.

But Williams directed investors to focus on the future instead.