Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Apache (NYSE:APA) Beats Quarterly Expectations, Acquires BP (NYSE:BP) Assets

Apache Corp. (NYSE:APA) handily beat earnings and revenue expectations for the second quarter, with international operations leading the way.

Earnings for the quarter reached $860.2 million, or $2.53 a share, a 94 percent gain from the same quarter last year of $443.3 million, or $1.31 a share. Revenue increased to $2.97 billion, or 42 percent.

Estimates for earnings were at $2.31 a share, while revenue was projected to reach $2.81 billion.

Chairman and Chief Executive G. Steven Farris said about the company's performance, "We are realizing the benefit of significant discoveries and the investments Apache made to bring them on production. Apache's financial results also benefited from our balanced commodity mix at a time when oil prices remain strong relative to North American natural gas prices."

Australia assets led the way for daily production, which was elevated by 10 percent for the quarter. Oil production reached 646,866 barrels of oil equivalent, while liquid hydrocarbon grew 16 percent over last year. Natural gas production was level, gaining only one percent in the quarter over last year, although increasing five percent over the previous quarter.

Under normal conditions this would have pushed the stock price up, but the news they are purchasing $7 billion in assets from BP (NYSE:BP) pushed the share price down, evidently based on dilution concerns, as the company will sell 21 million common shares and $1.1 billion in preferred shares to generate the capital.

Apache will reportedly pay about $5 billion before the official close, which has been thrown out to be on July 30.

No comments: