Bloomberg on CLB. Looks overdone to me.
Core Laboratories Shares Fall on 4th-Qtr Profit Drop (Update2) (Updates with closing share activity in 2nd paragraph.)
Houston, March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Core Laboratories NV fell 27 percent after the oil-service company said fourth- quarter earnings dropped 8.5 percent, missing estimates, because of spending cuts by exploration companies.
The shares fell 6 1/4 to 16 15/16 in trading of 1.94 million, more than 12 times the three-month daily average. Earlier, they touched 16 1/2. Core's stock fell 6.5 percent yesterday, when it canceled plans to buy GeoScience Corp.
Profit from continuing operations fell to $5.24 million, or 18 cents a share, from $5.73 million, or 23 cents, in 1997's fourth quarter. That was well below the 30-cent average estimate of three analysts polled by First Call Corp. Revenue fell 3.7 percent to $76.8 million from $79.8 million. ''It's just catch-up now,'' said analyst William Neal McAtee of Morgan Keegan Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee, who has an ''outperform'' rating on the stock. ''It hadn't been beat up as much as the rest of the (oil-service) group.''
Core's stock rose 8.5 percent last year, compared with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange's 15-company oil service index which fell 54 percent.
Amsterdam-based Core, which analyzes oil reservoirs, said it expensed about $1.5 million of acquisition-related costs in the fourth quarter. It had no gains and charges. In the year-earlier quarter, $85,000 in income from discontinued operations gave it net income $5.81 million, or 23 cents.
Core said yesterday it canceled plans to buy GeoScience, a maker of oil-finding equipment, for $214 million in cash and stock because it believed GeoScience gave it information that wasn't true. GeoScience is 80 percent-owned by Tech-Sym Corp. and based in Houston, where Core has U.S. offices.
Core said it will take an unspecified first-quarter charge to cover the cost of forgiving $3 million in working capital advances to GeoScience and related fees. |
