Gulfport Energy reports Q4 EPS $11.13, consensus $3.90

Reports Q4 revenue $489.1M, consensus $301.8M. “Gulfport’s 2023 results delivered on all fronts, highlighted by our quality resource base and the continued improvement of development efficiencies throughout the year. The Company delivered net production at the high end of the updated guidance range, and well above our initial guidance provided in February 2023. This was accomplished while staying within our initial capital budget range, despite the incremental activity accelerated during the fourth quarter of 2023, as previously disclosed. The company augmented our attractive acreage portfolio by strategically acquiring liquids-rich Utica acreage that extended our inventory base by ~1.5 years and by delineating ~2 years of liquids rich Marcellus locations overlying our Utica acreage at no incremental land cost. This additional inventory provides fundamental value to the company as well as expanded optionality to our go-forward development plans. The 2023 development program led to meaningful adjusted free cash flow generation, and after adjusting for cash flow utilized for attractive discretionary acreage acquisitions, we allocated approximately 99% of our adjusted free cash flow to repurchasing our common stock during 2023. All of this was achieved while maintaining our strong balance sheet, ample liquidity and financial leverage below one times,” commented John Reinhart, CEO of Gulfport. “As we move into 2024, the current natural gas pricing environment is challenged and reinforces the importance of developing our assets in an efficient and sustainable manner. Building on the momentum from 2023, we plan to remain focused on further optimizing our development programs cycle times and operating costs, and we laid out a program today expected to deliver similar production year over year on 10% less capital invested. Furthermore, our development program will focus on more liquids-rich development in both the Utica and SCOOP, ultimately improving margins and supporting our robust expected adjusted free cash flow generation, despite today’s challenging commodity backdrop. We plan to continue the return of capital to our shareholders and, excluding acquisitions, expect to allocate substantially all our full year 2024 adjusted free cash flow towards common stock repurchases.”