PetroQuest Energy Earnings: Here’s Why Investors are Selling Shares Now

PetroQuest Energy Inc. (NYSE:PQ) had a loss and missed Wall Street’s expectations, AND came up short on beating the revenue expectation. The revenue miss is a negative sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are down 6.64%.

PetroQuest Energy Inc. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased to $-0.41 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.04 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 0.29% to $38.2 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: PetroQuest Energy Inc. reported adjusted EPS loss of $0.41 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $0.05. It missed the average revenue estimate of $40.64 million.

Quoting Management: “Pro forma for the sale of our Fayetteville assets, we are forecasting 2013 production growth of approximately 5% with a capital budget that is approximately 35% lower than our projected 2012 capital spend,” said Charles T. Goodson, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. “While we are allocating a higher percentage of capital to the Gulf Coast basin than in previous years, we remain committed to our balanced strategy of utilizing Gulf Coast cash flow to fund resource development. As always, we expect to select projects that generate the highest projected risked adjusted rates of return and we believe that this year’s inventory of high quality Gulf Coast projects justifies a slight shift in our typical capital allocation.”

Key Stats (on next page)…