Large oil & gas services companies have been reporting earnings over the last week. Baker Hughes (BHI) and Schlumberger (SLB) were trading higher last Friday after impressive Q3 balance sheets were well received by investors, while the infamous Halliburton (HAL) has been struggling since it came in behind expectations on Monday.
Wednesday another industry leader, FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) was trading significantly lower as its own earnings report from the previous evening saw the company well behind consensus expectations.
For the recently-ended period, FMC netted $116 million, or $0.49 per share on revenue of $1.72 billion, compared to the prior year when the company earned $98.9 million, or $0.41 per share on revenue of $1.42. Despite the year-over-year increase, the results were short of expectations of $0.58 per share on revenue of $1.75 billion.
The company’s performance for the recently ended quarter was explained by ailing margins in its largest segment, Subsea Technologies, even though that revenue was up over 20 percent on the year-ago period. Both the Surface Technologies and Energy Infrastructure segments had also increased revenue substantially as well.
It was not only the miss on estimates that had the stock trading some 8 percent lower to $53.53 heading to the close, however. FMC’s reduced its guidance for 2013 EPS, from a range of $2.10-$2.25 to $2.00-$2.10. And despite the reduced guidance, the stock has enjoyed a strong year, adding 35 percent, and the company has a sizeable backlog of order to tend to, particularly in the Subsea segment, totaling nearly $6,500 million.
