LNG company stocks Cheniere Energy and New Fortress Energy posted mixed earnings results Thursday with both missing on earnings views but beating revenue estimates.
Earnings from the two liquefied natural gas leaders come as U.S. natural gas futures continued to increase Thursday after jumping 7% to $8.26 per metric million British thermal units Wednesday. The price had dropped to a two-week low of $7.70 per MMBTU Tuesday. Strong demand in Europe and the U.S. for natural gas has continued to drive prices up even as the price of U.S. crude oil has dropped off in recent weeks.
LNG Company Stocks: Cheniere Energy Earnings
Estimates: Analysts polled by FactSet predict Cheniere will earn $3.49 per share on revenue of $6.4 billion.
Results: Sales increased 165% to $8 billion in the second quarter. LNG earned $2.90 per share, a 323% gain from a net loss of $1.30 per share in Q2 2021.
Cheniere Energy shares slipped 0.8% to 144.20 during Thursday's market trading. On Wednesday, the stock hovered just below a $150.10 buy point in an 11-week consolidation.
Cheniere Energy has been pulling higher after a period of consolidation below its 50-day moving average. LNG stock has topped an early, aggressive trendline entry around 140. A pause would be normal given recent gains ahead of earnings, according to Leaderboard analysis.
Houston-based Cheniere is the largest producer of liquefied natural gas in the U.S. and one of the largest LNG operators in the world. Its services range from gas procurement and transport to vessel chartering and delivery. Cheniere owns and operates liquefied natural gas terminals near Corpus Christi, Texas.
Its revenue in the first quarter grew 141% to $7.5 billion while it reported a net loss of $3.41 per share, down from $1.54 EPS in Q1 2021. The company did raise its profit forecast for 2022 amid spiking demand, and boosted the full-year adjusted core earnings estimate to $8.2 billion-$8.7 billion, up from $7 billion-$7.5 billion.
Cheniere Energy ranks 36th in the Oil & Gas-Transport/Pipeline industry group. LNG stock has a Composite Rating of 73. It has a 97 Relative Strength Rating, an exclusive IBD Stock Checkup gauge for share-price movement with a 1 to 99 score. The rating shows how a stock's performance over the last 52 weeks holds up against all the other stocks in IBD's database. LNG's EPS Rating is just 2.
LNG Company Stocks: New Fortress Energy Earnings
Estimates: Wall Street is predicting EPS of 53 cents and $489 million in sales.
Results: New Fortress Energy reported a net loss of 81 cents per share and revenue increased 120% to $497 million in the second quarter. The company had a net loss of 3 cents per share in Q2 2021.
Along with its earnings, New Fortress Energy announced Thursday it had entered a partnership with Plug Power for a 120 megawatt industrial-scale green hydrogen plant near Beaumont, Texas. The plant would be one of the largest green hydrogen plants in North America, according to NFE.
Green hydrogen is the term used for hydrogen produced using renewable power as the energy source. Hydrogen is considered a key fuel for the global energy transition, according to the World Economic Forum.
NFE shares closed down more than 1% to 49.23 Thursday. The stock has a 52.47 buy point, and was trading about 5% below that entry, according to MarketSmith charts.
The New York-based liquefied natural gas business was founded in 2014 and has operations in the U.S., Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. NFE works on energy infrastructure and develops, finances and operates natural gas facilities.
The company posted EPS of $1.13 in Q1, up from a loss of 21 cents the previous year. Revenue jumped 247% to $505 million in the first quarter.
NFE sits second on the IBD 50 stock list. The company ranks third in the Oil & Gas-Integrated industry group. New Fortress Energy has a Composite Rating of 99. Its Relative Strength Rating is also a best-possible 99 and its EPS Rating is 77.
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