Core Laboratories Q4 Profit Up 18%, Beats View; But Revenues Miss

(RTTNews) - Core Laboratories N.V. (CLB) on Wednesday reported an 18 percent increase in profit for the fourth quarter from last year, reflecting higher revenues across all its three segments. Adjusted earnings per share beat analysts' expectations, while revenues missed their estimates.

Looking ahead, Core Labs forecast financial results for the first quarter mostly above Street expectations. For fiscal 2014, the company projected earnings in line with analysts' estimates, but revenues below their expectations.

Core Labs is a provider of reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management services to the oil and gas industry.

The Netherlands-based Core Lab's net income for the fourth quarter was $64.72 million or $1.42 per share, up from $54.80 million or $1.17 per share in the same period last year.

Excluding foreign exchange losses, gain from insurance settlement and the impact of lower effective tax rate, adjusted net income for the quarter was $64.94 million or $1.43 per share. On average, fifteen analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.41 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter grew 9 percent to $276.28 million from $254.46 million in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $279.19 million for the quarter.

According to Core Labs, the results were driven primarily by the introduction of new high-margin technologies and related services, especially by the company's production enhancement segment operations.

Segment wise, reservoir description revenues for the quarter grew 6 percent from the year-ago period to $136.25 million due to an increasing number of reservoir-fluids-related projects around the globe.

Production enhancement revenues rose 8 percent to $115.27 million, while operating margins increased 490 basis points to a quarterly record of 36 percent. The record results were underpinned by the continued successful introduction of Core's new Flowprofiler service and its new systems for optimizing completions and stimulations of horizontal wells.

Reservoir management revenues for the quarter surged 30 percent from last year to $24.75 million.

For fiscal 2013, Core Lab's net income rose to $242.81 million or $5.28 per share from $216.07 million or $4.54 per share last year. Adjusted net income was $244.86 million or $5.32 per share, compared to $214.79 million or $4.52 per share in the prior year.

Revenue for the year surged to $1.07 billion from $981.08 million in the prior year.

Street expected the company to report earnings of $5.30 per share for the year on revenues of $1.08 billion.

Looking ahead to the first quarter, Core Labs expects earnings of $1.43 to $1.45 per share and revenues of $280 million to $286 million. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $1.43 per share for the quarter on revenues of $281.38 million.

Core Labs anticipates that first quarter 2014 North American activity levels will ramp up slightly from fourth quarter 2013 levels, while international activity will continue to experience moderate increases.

The company's outlook for 2014 remains positive as Core projects increases in worldwide activity should support revenue growth of up to 10 percent and earnings per share growth of up to 17 percent.

For fiscal 2014, Core Labs forecasts earnings in a range of about $6.00 to $6.25 per share, and revenue in a range of $1.160 billion to $1.181 billion. Analysts expect the company to earn $6.17 per share for the year on revenues of $1.19 billion.

CLB closed Wednesday's trading at $185.99, down $0.85 or 0.45 percent on a volume of 501,546 shares. However, in after-hours, the stock gained $6.02 or 3.24 percent to $192.01.