Energy Winners: National-Oilwell Beats
HOUSTON (
) --
National-Oilwell Varco
(NOV) - Get Report
beat a Street estimate for fourth quarter earnings per share by 17 cents, and its shares were up more than 4% on Wednesday morning on the better-than-expected earnings.
National-Oilwell reported earnings per share of 94 cents in the fourth quarter -- the Street estimate was 77 cents. National-Oilwell also beat on revenues, reporting a 2% sequential increase to $3.1 billion, versus a Street expectation of revenues close to $2.9 billion.
Fourth quarter net income was $394 million, compared to third quarter net income of $385 million, or 92 cents a share.
Pete Miller, chairman and CEO, sought to focus investors on National-Oilwell's stability with the earnings announcement: "We achieved solid results in 2009, despite the challenging market we faced throughout the year ... We ended the year with $2.6 billion in cash, and cash flow remains a strength of our company."
Rig technology has shown a declining trend of late, while petroleum services and distribution services both improved quarter over quarter.
Fourth-quarter revenues for the rig technology segment decreased 1% from the third quarter of 2009, and 5% from the fourth quarter of 2008. Operating profit for rig technology was $566 million, or 28.6% of sales, a decrease of 2% from the third quarter.
National-Oilwell's CEO Miller spoke directly to the decrease in the rig technology business in the earnings release, saying, "We enter 2010 with a solid backlog of equipment and technology ... We believe that the oil and gas industry will continue to need to upgrade the world's rig fleet, and we look forward to continuing to help our customers retool their rigs to improve safety, reduce environmental impact and drive higher efficiency."
-- Reported by Eric Rosenbaum in New York.
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