Can the Marcellus Shale Continue Fueling Big Profits for Drillers in the Second Quarter?

While the price of natural gas has bounced around quite a bit over the past year, it's up about 10% overall. That higher price, when combined with an associated increase in production and lower costs, fueled big-time profits for Marcellus Shale-focused producers in the first quarter of this year. Given that gas prices remained rather steady in the second quarter, analysts anticipate that producers continued pulling in the profits. Here's a look at the current expectations for some of the Marcellus' leading producers as they get set to report second-quarter results in the coming weeks.

EQT Corp. (NYSE: EQT) cashed in on its Marcellus Shale position last quarter by producing $74.8 million of adjusted net income, or $0.43 per share, which was up nearly tenfold from the year-ago quarter. Fueling that strong result was a 6% increase in production and a 33% rise in realized prices. However, analysts don't expect to see quite such a robust result in the second quarter when it reports before the markets open on July 27, with the current consensus that the company will earn $0.09 per share. On the other hand, that would still be a significant improvement from the year-ago quarter when it reported a loss of $0.35 per share.

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Source: Fool.com