Dj Kinder Morgan Inc. Stock Outperforms Competitors Despite Losses On The Day

Chevron Corporation CVX reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share of $2.06, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.19 and well below the year-ago adjusted profit of $3.45. The underperformance stemmed from weaker oil price realizations and a dip in refined product sales margins.

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The company generated revenue of $52.2 billion. The sales figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $47 billion and increased 10.7% year over year due to higher-than-expected U.S. production in the company’s key upstream segment. The unit’s domestic output of 1,646 thousand oil-equivalent barrels per day (MBOE/d) came in slightly above the consensus mark of 1,635 MBOE/d.

Importantly, CVX hiked its quarterly cash dividend by 5% to $1.71 per share. The dividend will be paid out on March 19, 2025, to its shareholders of record as of Feb. 14.

Chevron Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Chevron Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Chevron Corporation Quote

Segment Performance

Upstream: Chevron’s production of crude oil and natural gas — at 3,350 MBOE/d (59% liquids) — fell 1.2% year over year. The latest volume statistics primarily reflect higher output from the Permian basin — America's hottest and lowest-cost shale region, partly offset by hurricane-associated production loss in the Gulf of America and asset sale in Canada.

The U.S. output rose 3% year over year to 1,646 MBOE/d but the company’s international operations (accounting for 51% of the total) dropped 5% to 1,704 MBOE/d.

Despite volumes declining from last year and lower oil realizations, Chevron’s fourth-quarter 2024 upstream segment profit surged 171.4% to $4.3 billion. This was primarily due to the absence of certain charges from a year ago.

At $53.12 per barrel, Chevron’s average realized liquids prices in the United States were 9.5% below the year-earlier levels, while prices overseas decreased 9.7% to $67.33 per barrel. As far as natural gas is concerned, the commodity was unchanged in the United States and rose 4.9% internationally.

Downstream: Chevron’s downstream segment recorded a loss of $248 million, plunging from last year’s profit of $1.1 billion. The slip underlined lower product sales margins and higher operating expenses in the United States.

Cash Flows, Capital Expenditure

The company recorded $8.7 billion in cash flow from operations, compared to $12.4 billion the year-ago period due to a drop in earnings and asset retirement obligations. Chevron’s free cash flow for the quarter was $4.4 billion.

Further, Chevron paid $2.9 billion in dividends and bought back $4.6 billion worth of its shares.

The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company spent around $4.3 billion in capital and exploratory expenditures during the quarter, compared to the year-ago period’s $4.4 billion.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Balance Sheet

As of Dec. 31, the only energy component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average had $6.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents and total debt of $24.5 billion with a debt-to-total capitalization of about 13.9%.

Important Energy Earnings

While we have discussed Chevron’s fourth-quarter results in detail, let’s take a look at some other key oil/energy reports of this season.

Oil service biggie SLB SLB reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings per share of 92 cents, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 90 cents and higher than the year-ago quarter’s profit of 86 cents. The robust numbers reflect broad-based growth and margin expansion, especially in the Middle East and Asia. Additionally, advancements in AI and autonomous operations continue to contribute significantly to SLB’s results.

Along with the quarterly earnings, SLB announced approvals from the board of directors to hike quarterly dividends by 3.6%. The company has also decided on an accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) program involving the repurchase of $2.3 billion of its common stock. Notably, the ASR is part of SLB’s broader plan to return a minimum of $4 billion to its shareholders in 2025 through dividends and stock repurchases.

Refining major Valero Energy VLO reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of 88 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 13 cents. Total quarterly revenues of $30.8 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by $27 million. Better-than-expected quarterly results can be primarily attributed to an increase in renewable diesel margins and lower total cost of sales.

VLO’s fourth-quarter capital investment totaled $547 million, of which $452 million was allocated toward sustaining the business. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $4.7 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. As of Dec. 31, 2024, it had a total debt of $8.1 billion and finance lease obligations of $2.4 billion.

Energy infrastructure provider Kinder Morgan KMI reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, shy of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents. The lower-than-expected quarterly earnings were primarily due to decreased volumes on certain systems, asset divestitures, and lower crude, CO2 and NGL volumes. KMI’s fourth-quarter DCF was $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, Kinder Morgan reported $88 million in cash and cash equivalents. Its long-term debt amounted to $29.8 billion at the quarter-end. For 2025, Kinder Morgan projects a net income of $2.8 billion, up 8% from the 2024 level, and an adjusted EPS of $1.27, up 10%. The company expects to declare dividends of $1.17 per share, up 2% from the prior-year figure. It also anticipates budgeted adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 billion, up 4% from the previous year’s level.

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Europe’s largest oil company, Shell plc SHEL, reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings per ADS (on a current cost of supplies basis, excluding items — the market’s preferred measure) of $1.20. The bottom line came in well below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.78 and fell from the year-earlier quarter’s earnings of $2.22 per American Depositary Share (ADS), dragged down by weaker realized prices, drop in trading margins and lower LNG sales.

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Shell’s revenues of $66.8 billion were down from $80.1 billion in fourth-quarter 2023 and missed the consensus mark by 16.6%.

Meanwhile, Shell repurchased $3.6 billion of shares in the fourth quarter and hiked its dividend by 5%. The London-based company expects another $3.5 billion worth of repurchases for the first quarter.

Shell PLC Unsponsored ADR Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Shell PLC Unsponsored ADR price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Shell PLC Unsponsored ADR Quote

Inside Shell’s Segments

Upstream: The segment recorded a profit of $1.7 billion (excluding items) during the quarter, down from $3.1 billion (adjusted) in the year-ago period and below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2 billion. This primarily reflects the impact of lower oil and gas prices.

At $70.69 per barrel, the group’s worldwide realized liquids prices were 11% below the year-earlier levels, while natural gas prices fell 7%.

Shell’s upstream volumes averaged 1,859 thousand oil-equivalent barrels per day (MBOE/d), down a marginal 0.6% from the year-ago period but ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 1,851 MBOE/d, mainly due to new crude production. Liquids production totaled 1,332 thousand barrels per day (a decrease of 2.1% year over year) and natural gas output came in at 3,056 million standard cubic feet per day (up 3.5%).

Chemicals and Products: In this segment, the London-based supermajor reported an adjusted loss of $229 million, reversing from a profit of $29 million in the year-ago period. The unfavorable comparison was due to a drop in trading and optimization margins, weak realized prices and unfavorable tax movements. Meanwhile, refinery utilization came in at 76% compared with 81% during the December-end quarter of 2023. The figure was also lower than the consensus mark of 78%.

Integrated Gas: The unit reported an adjusted income of $2.2 billion, deteriorating from $4 billion in the October-December quarter of 2023 and below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.8 billion. Results were primarily impacted by lower LNG sales volumes, which fell 14.3% from the fourth quarter of 2023 to 15.50 million tons (consensus called for 16.23 million tons). Total Integrated Gas production remained essentially flat year over year at 905 MBOE/d.

Marketing: The segment recorded an income of $839 million (excluding items) during the quarter compared to the year-ago earnings of $794 million due to lower operating expenses. The Zacks Consensus Estimate pegged the Marketing unit income at $885 million.

Renewables and Energy Solutions: The segment logged an adjusted loss of $311 million, reflecting a deterioration from the year-ago income of $173 million and underperforming the consensus mark by $44 million. The performance blip reflects adverse tax effects and rising costs. External power sales were up 12% year over year to 76 terawatt hours, though piped gas sales fell 6% to 165 terawatt hours.

Financial Performance

As of Dec. 31, 2024, the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company had $39.1 billion in cash and $77.1 billion in debt (including short-term debt). Net debt-to-capitalization was approximately 17.7%, down from 18.8% a year ago.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

During the quarter under review, Shell generated cash flow from operations of $13.2 billion, returned $2.1 billion to its shareholders through dividends and spent $6.5 billion on capital projects.

The company’s cash flow from operations increased 4.7% from the year-earlier level. Meanwhile, the group raked in $8.7 billion in free cash flow during the fourth quarter compared to $6.9 billion a year ago.

Guidance

Shell expects first-quarter 2025 upstream volumes of 1,750-1,950 MBOE/d, while Integrated Gas production is expected between 930 MBOE/d and 990 MBOE/d. The company also foresees marketing sales volumes of 2,500-3,000 thousand barrels per day and refinery utilization in the range of 80-88%.

Important Energy Earnings So Far

While we have discussed Shell’s fourth-quarter results in detail, let’s take a look at some other key oil/energy reports of this season so far.

Oil service biggie SLB SLB reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings per share of 92 cents, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 90 cents and higher than the year-ago quarter’s profit of 86 cents. The robust numbers reflect broad-based growth and margin expansion, especially in the Middle East and Asia. Additionally, advancements in AI and autonomous operations continue to contribute significantly to SLB’s results.

Along with the quarterly earnings, SLB announced approvals from the board of directors to hike quarterly dividends by 3.6%. The company has also decided on an accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) program involving the repurchase of $2.3 billion of its common stock. Notably, the ASR is part of SLB’s broader plan to return a minimum of $4 billion to its shareholders in 2025 through dividends and stock repurchases.

Refining major Valero Energy VLO reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of 88 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 13 cents. Total quarterly revenues of $30.8 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by $27 million. Better-than-expected quarterly results can be primarily attributed to an increase in renewable diesel margins and lower total cost of sales.

VLO’s fourth-quarter capital investment totaled $547 million, of which $452 million was allocated toward sustaining the business. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $4.7 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. As of Dec. 31, 2024, it had a total debt of $8.1 billion and finance lease obligations of $2.4 billion.

Energy infrastructure provider Kinder Morgan KMI reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, shy of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents. The lower-than-expected quarterly earnings were primarily due to decreased volumes on certain systems, asset divestitures, and lower crude, CO2 and NGL volumes. KMI’s fourth-quarter DCF was $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, Kinder Morgan reported $88 million in cash and cash equivalents. Its long-term debt amounted to $29.8 billion at the quarter-end. For 2025, Kinder Morgan projects a net income of $2.8 billion, up 8% from the 2024 level, and an adjusted EPS of $1.27, up 10%. The company expects to declare dividends of $1.17 per share, up 2% from the prior-year figure. It also anticipates budgeted adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 billion, up 4% from the previous year’s level.

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Core Laboratories Inc. CLB reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of 23 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 21 cents. The bottom line also increased from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure of 19 cents. This can be attributed to the better-than-expected performance of Reservoir Description segment.

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This oil-field service provider’s operating revenues of $129.2 million missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $131 million by 1.4%, due to poor year-over-year performance from its Production Enhancement segment. However, the top line increased 0.9% from the year-ago quarter’s $128 million. This can be attributed to the Reservoir Description segment’s impressive performance.

During the fourth quarter, the company repurchased 264,982 shares of common stock for a total of $4.9 million. Additionally, the company reduced its debt leverage ratio to 1.31 and decreased net debt by $11.7 million.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, the company's leverage ratio, calculated as total net debt divided by adjusted EBITDA for the last four quarters, decreased to 1.31, improving from 1.47 as of Sept. 30, 2024.

Core Laboratories Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Core Laboratories Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Core Laboratories Inc. Quote

Segmental Performance of Core Laboratories

Reservoir Description: Revenues in this segment increased about 2.1% to $86.8 million from $85 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. However, the top line missed our estimation of $$88.2 million.

Operating income increased from $12 million in the year-ago period to $16.5 million and beat our estimate of $12.6 million. This was due to increased demand for reservoir rock and fluid analysis in international and U.S. markets.

Production Enhancement: This segment’s revenues decreased 3.6% to $42.4 million from $44 million in the prior year quarter. Moreover, the top line missed our estimate of $42.7 million.

Operating loss of $2.6 million was below our estimate of an operating income of $3.6 million. This decrease was primarily due to lower U.S. onshore completion activity, which led to a reduction in product sales. The metric decreased from the year-ago quarter’s reported profit of $2.2 million.

Costs & Expenses of CLB

CLB reported total costs and expenses of $115.1 million in the fourth quarter, increasing 1.3% from the year-ago quarter’s level. The figure was slightly lower than our estimation of $115.2 million.

CLB’s Financials & Dividends

As of Dec. 31, 2024, The company had cash and cash equivalents of $19.2 million and long-term debt of $126.1 million. CLB’s debt-to-capitalization was 32.9%.

Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $20.6 million, while capital expenditure amounted to $4.4 million. This led to a positive free cash flow of $16 million.

Core Laboratories’ board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 1 cent per share to its common shareholders of record as of Feb. 10. The payout, which is unchanged from the previous quarter, will be made on March 3.

CLB’s Management Remarks & Outlook

Core Laboratories anticipates that alongside geopolitical risks and recently expanded sanctions, typical seasonal industry patterns are likely to result in a decline in some regions’ activity during the first quarter of 2025. Severe weather in the United States and Mediterranean regions led to the suspension of client activities and facility closures.

For the first quarter of 2025, CLB expects revenues to range from $121 million to $127 million. Operating income is anticipated to be between $10.2 million and $12.8 million, with earnings per share expected to be between 12 cents and 16 cents.

Revenues for the Reservoir Description segment are anticipated to be between $82 million and $85 million, with operating income ranging from $9 million to $10.7 million. In the first quarter of 2025, onshore U.S. drilling and completion activity was negatively affected by freezing conditions and continued decline throughout January. However, activity is expected to improve as the quarter progresses.

Revenues for the Production Enhancement segment are expected to be between $39 million and $42 million, with operating income predicted between $1.1 million and $2 million.

The company anticipates an effective tax rate of 25% for the first quarter. This change in the effective tax rate is expected to increase income tax expense by approximately $500,000. The company's guidance for the first quarter of 2025 is based on estimations for underlying operations and excludes any gains or losses from foreign exchange.

CLB expects to keep generating positive free cash flow in the coming quarters. The company will focus on its strategic goals and work on reducing debt. CLB will also continue to evaluate how to best use its free cash flow.

Management expects that as 2025 progresses, Core Laboratories will continue executing its strategic plan, with a focus on technology investments that are designed to address client needs and unlock growth opportunities. While operators adopted a more cautious stance in the second half of 2024 due to concerns over potential imbalances in crude oil supply and demand, Core Laboratories remains confident in the long-term outlook for international upstream projects through 2025 and beyond.

Industry forecasts from the IEA, EIA and OPEC+ project crude oil demand growth of approximately 1.1-1.4 million barrels per day in 2025 in addition to the natural decline in output from existing fields. This indicates a sustained need for investment in the development of onshore and offshore oil fields to meet future demand.

In the near term, the company expects crude oil markets to remain volatile, due to global economic uncertainties and geopolitical risks. Expanded sanctions in January 2025 disrupted crude oil trading and the demand for laboratory testing services, while broadening restrictions on product sales and services to additional entities.

Looking forward, CLB expects to stay actively involved in long-term international projects. Activity in these projects is likely to remain stable with significant upstream developments in regions such as the South Atlantic Margin, North and West Africa, Norway, the Middle East. Parts of Asia Pacific likely to drive mid-single-digit year-over-year growth in demand for Core Laboratories’ services and products. In the United States, onshore activity is expected to remain flat or show slight declines compared with 2024.

CLB’s Key Projects & Technology Advancements

In the fourth quarter of 2024, CLB completed a study for a Middle Eastern National Oil Company (“NOC”) using its special Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (“NMR”) technology. The study used both High and Low Frequency NMR instruments to analyze reservoir rocks at different temperatures. By using different NMR frequencies and other advanced methods, Core Laboratories’ scientists were able to separate movable liquid hydrocarbons from immovable solid ones in the rock samples.

This is something traditional down-hole log methods often struggle to do. Without Core Laboratories’ analysis, NOC might have overestimated the recoverable reserves in the area it was studying.

CLB worked with an oilfield services company in Southeast Asia to boost productivity from a low-permeability gas reservoir at the same time. The company used Core Laboratories’ STIMGUNTM propellant technology, which combines conventional perforating methods with high-energy stimulation to improve permeability near the well. This technology created fracture networks, leading to a 55% increase in expected natural gas production.

Also, the company helped an operator from Canada identify oil flow from a well with multiple horizontal legs. By using Core Laboratories' FlowProfiler oil tracers, the operator confirmed oil production from 87% of the traced legs after 30 days. CLB also introduced FlowProfiler water tracers to help operators track both oil and water production from each horizontal leg.

The company currently has Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Important Earnings at a Glance

While we have discussed CLB’s fourth-quarter results in detail, let us take a look at three other key reports of this space.

Oil and gas equipment and services provider Liberty Energy LBRT reported a fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted net income of 10 cents per share, which marginally beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 9 cents, due to a year-over-year decrease in costs and expenses. However, the bottom line underperformed the year-ago quarter’s reported figure of 54 cents, due to poor equipment and service execution, along with lower activity.

As of Dec. 31, Liberty had approximately $20 million in cash and cash equivalents. The pressure pumper’s long-term debt of $190.5 million represented a debt-to-capitalization of 8.8%.

Another oil and gas equipment and services provider Halliburton Company HAL posted a fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted net income per share of 70 cents, same as the Zacks Consensus Estimate but below the year-ago quarter’s profit of 86 cents (adjusted). The numbers indicated softer activity in the region of North America, partly offset by improved fluid work in the Gulf of Mexico.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, the company had approximately $2.6 billion in cash/cash equivalents and $7.2 billion in long-term debt, representing a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 40.4. The company generated $1.5 billion of cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter, leading to a free cash flow of $1.1 billion.

Energy infrastructure provider Kinder Morgan KMI reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, shy of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents. The lower-than-expected quarterly earnings were primarily due to decreased volumes on certain systems, asset divestitures and lower crude, CO2 and NGL volumes. KMI’s fourth-quarter DCF was $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, Kinder Morgan reported $88 million in cash and cash equivalents. Its long-term debt amounted to $29.8 billion at the quarter-end. For 2025, Kinder Morgan anticipates a net income of $2.8 billion, up 8% from the prior-year level, and an adjusted EPS of $1.27, up 10%. The company expects to declare dividends of $1.17 per share, up 2% from the prior-year figure. It also anticipates budgeted adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 billion, up 4% from the previous-year level.

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Liberty Energy Inc. LBRT reported a fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted net income of 10 cents per share, which marginally beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 9 cents. The Denver, CO-based oil and gas equipment company's outperformance indicated a year-over-year decrease in costs and expenses.

However, the bottom line underperformed the year-ago quarter’s reported figure of 54 cents, due to poor equipment and service execution, along with lower activity.

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The company's revenues totaled $943.6 million, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.4%. The top line was also below the prior-year quarter’s level of $1.07 billion by 12.2%.

Liberty Energy Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Liberty Energy Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Liberty Energy Inc. Quote

The company’s adjusted EBITDA was $155.7 million, a decrease from $253 million in the year-ago quarter. The figure also missed our prediction of $170.8 million.

Recently, LBRT and Cummins Inc. CMI, the construction machinery & heavy transportation equipment company, announced their collaboration to introduce the industry’s first natural gas variable speed, large displacement engine for the former’s digiPrime hydraulic fracturing platform. This is set for deployment in the first half of 2025.

Ahead of the earnings release, Liberty Energy’s board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share to its Class A common shareholders of record as of March 6. The payout, which is unchanged from the previous quarter, will be made on March 20.

The company returned $175 million to its shareholders through the repurchase of 3.8% of shares and quarterly cash dividends in 2024. For the quarter ended, Liberty repurchased and retired 1,581,495 shares of Class A common stock at an average price of $17.88 per share, representing 1% of shares outstanding for a total of around $28 million.

Over the course of the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, the company repurchased and retired 6,320,536 shares at an average price of $20.14 per share, totaling approximately $127 million, which accounted for 3.8% of shares outstanding. Since the repurchase program launched on July 25, 2022, Liberty has repurchased and retired a cumulative 15.1% of shares outstanding. The company currently has about $294 million remaining in repurchase authorization.

The company accelerated the commercial deployment of its digiTechnologies, introducing the innovative technology, which represents a groundbreaking advancement in frac technology by enhancing both efficiency and reducing emissions. It also achieved a record 7,143 pumping hours on a single fleet for the year, averaging nearly 600 hours per month. Additionally, the company expanded Liberty Power Innovations' (“LPI”) natural gas compression, fueling and delivery services infrastructure to its optimal scale. Furthermore, it announced a collaboration between LPI and DC Grid to provide advanced power solutions for commercial fleet electric vehicle hubs and data centers.

For the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, the company achieved a 17% Adjusted Pre-Tax Return on Capital Employed and a 21% Cash Return on Invested Capital.

Costs & Expenses of LBRT

Liberty reported total costs and expenses of $918.7 million in the fourth quarter, decreasing 3.4% from the year-ago quarter’s level. The figure was also lower than our estimation of $950.2 million.

Balance Sheet & Capital Expenditure of LBRT

As of Dec. 31, Liberty had approximately $20 million in cash and cash equivalents. The pressure pumper’s long-term debt of $190.5 million represented a debt-to-capitalization of 8.8%.

Further, the company’s liquidity, cash balance and revolving credit facility amounted to $135 million.

In the reported quarter, this Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) company spent $188.1 million in its capital program, exceeding our estimation of $182 million.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

LBRT’s Management Remarks & Outlook

The company expects global oil markets to continue facing uncertainties from geopolitical factors, Chinese economic growth and OPEC+ production decisions, but anticipates no major changes in E&P activity plans. Natural gas demand is expected to remain robust, supported by LNG export capacity growth and an estimated increase in North America’s power consumption.

For the first quarter, LBRT expects a modest sequential increase in revenues and adjusted EBITDA, with solid free cash flow generation from its completions services business despite pricing headwinds. The company also plans significant investment growth in power infrastructure to capitalize on the rising demand for power.

Liberty expects power demand to rise at the fastest pace since the start of 2025, driven by growing needs from data centers, reshoring manufacturing and increases from mining, electrification and other industrial sectors. Management believes that the company is well-positioned to capture this demand with its modular power solutions, offering reliability, redundancy and the ability to scale quickly to meet the growing infrastructure needs for critical projects.

Important Earnings at a Glance

While we have discussed Liberty’s fourth-quarter results in detail, let us take a look at the two other key reports of this space.

Oil and gas equipment and services provider Halliburton Company HAL posted fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted net income per share of 70 cents, the same as the Zacks Consensus Estimate but below the year-ago quarter’s profit of 86 cents (adjusted). The numbers indicated softer activity in the region of North America, partly offset by improved fluid work in the Gulf of Mexico.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, the company had approximately $2.6 billion in cash/cash equivalents and $7.2 billion in long-term debt, representing a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 40.4. The company generated $1.5 billion of cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter, leading to a free cash flow of $1.1 billion.

Energy infrastructure provider Kinder Morgan KMI reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, shy of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents. The lower-than-expected quarterly earnings were primarily due to decreased volumes on certain systems, asset divestitures, and lower crude, CO2 and NGL volumes. KMI’s fourth-quarter DCF was $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, Kinder Morgan reported $88 million in cash and cash equivalents. Its long-term debt amounted to $29.8 billion at the quarter-end. For 2025, Kinder Morgan anticipates a net income of $2.8 billion, up 8% from the prior-year level, and an adjusted EPS of $1.27, up 10%. The company expects to declare dividends of $1.17 per share, up 2% from the prior-year figure. It also anticipates budgeted adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 billion, up 4% from the previous-year level.

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