Ultra Petroleum Q2 Net Earnings Decline, Miss Estimates; Revenues Beat

(RTTNews) - Texas-based Ultra Petroleum Corp. (UPL) Thursday reported a drop in second-quarter net earnings despite higher revenues, hurt by wider realized losses on commodity derivatives. While earnings missed analysts' estimates by a penny, revenues topped them.

Net earnings declined to $106.05 million or $0.68 per share, from $116.38 million or $0.75 per share a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings totaled $81.22 million or $0.52 per share, compared with $71.89 million or $0.47 per share a year ago.

On average, twenty-one analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters estimated the company's earnings to be $0.53 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Total operating revenues rose to $296.06 million, from $261.38 million last year, above the $275.56 million Wall Street expected.

For the second quarter of 2014, production of natural gas and oil was 58.5 billion cubic feet equivalent. The output comprises of 54.0 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas and 758.8 thousand barrels (Mbls) of oil, whose production rose 154 percent over last year.

Average realized natural gas price stood at $3.61 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf).