Forum Earnings Down 22%

Forum Energy Technologies has posted first quarter 2015 revenue of $348 million, a decrease of $56 million, or 14%, from the first quarter 2014.

The Houston-based oilfield products company recorded net income for the quarter of $29 million or $0.31 per diluted share compared to $37 million or $0.38 per diluted share for the prior-year period.

Excluding $0.01 per share of non-operational items, adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.30 in the first quarter 2015, beating the market predictions of $0.28 EPS.

Non-operational items for the quarter included a foreign exchange gain of $6.6 million and a restructuring charge of $4.9 million.

Drilling & Subsea segment revenue in the first quarter 2015 was $215 million, a decrease of $47 million, or 18%, from the first quarter 2014. The revenue decline was across all product lines in the segment.

Production & Infrastructure segment revenue in the first quarter 2015 was $133 million, a decrease of $9 million, or 7%, from the first quarter 2014.

Cris Gaut, Forum’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Given the rapid decline of the drilling and completions sector, Forum had a relatively good first quarter.

“We were proactive with our cost reduction efforts, which helped to preserve our operating margins, demonstrating the scalability of our business model. EBITDA for the quarter, excluding non-operational items, was $62 million, or 17.7% of revenue.

“We generated free cash flow of $38 million and delivered on our acquisition strategy with the closing of J-Mac Tool during the first quarter.

“The decline in oil prices had a significant impact on the spending by our customers. Each of our product lines experienced sequentially lower revenues in the first quarter 2015 contributed to by the 44% decline in the North America rig count during the quarter. New orders received by Forum in the first quarter were $288 million, a decline of 32% from the fourth quarter with the only increase being in our Valves product line. Our first quarter 2015 book to bill ratio was 83%.

“Forum expects diluted earnings per share for the second quarter 2015 of $0.15 to $0.20.”