RPC (RES) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Margin Expansion and $74.5M Impairment

Key Takeaways

• RPC Inc. (NYSE: RES) reported Q3 2026 revenue of $468 million, up 1% sequentially despite relatively subdued completion activity.
• Adjusted EBITDA rose to $71.5 million from $66 million in Q2, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 100 basis points to 15.3%.
• Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.10. Adjustments totaled $0.30 per share, primarily reflecting a $74.5 million noncash impairment related to Pintail Wireline and acquisition-related employment costs.
• Coiled Tubing revenue increased 20% sequentially, while Snubbing rose 12% and Pressure Pumping, including acid, increased 3%. Wireline revenue declined 8%.
• Operating cash flow was $41 million. After $40 million of capital expenditures, free cash flow was $1 million, partly due to a $25 million working-capital increase.
• Management expects normal year-end seasonality to affect Q4 activity but is optimistic about 2027, while emphasizing that higher pricing and firm customer commitments are needed before reactivating additional Pressure Pumping capacity.

Key Financial Data

The impairment is expected to reduce future depreciation and amortization by approximately $3 million per quarter. RPC maintained its regular quarterly dividend at $0.04 per share, with year-to-date dividend payments totaling $27 million.

Business and Operating Performance

Pressure Pumping was RPC’s largest service line at 30.8% of Q3 revenue, followed by Downhole Tools at 24.6%, Wireline at 17.5%, Coiled Tubing at 10.4%, Cementing at 5.7%, and Rental Tools at 3.8%. Together, these businesses generated 93% of total revenue.

Coiled Tubing revenue increased 20% sequentially across all districts, supported by a favorable job and equipment mix that management said may be difficult to replicate consistently. RPC took delivery of a third 2 7/8-inch reel trailer as an upgrade to an existing unit and has two additional units eligible for similar upgrades.

Snubbing revenue rose 12%. The big bore snubbing unit placed into service during Q2 completed its first full quarter of work. Its cavern-storage inspection work has multiyear visibility but is expected to be most active in the second and third quarters.

Downhole Tools revenue declined 2% due mainly to lower fishing activity after several strong quarters. Growth continued in core products and in the Rocky Mountain, Northeast, Southeast and foreign districts. Adoption of the MetalMax metal-on-metal power section expanded, with some early-adopter districts using it on more than half of their jobs. RPC also reported new downhole-tool depth records in the Bakken and Montney formations.

Wireline revenue fell 8%. Pintail’s EBITDA margins remained in the mid-single-digit range, and persistent pricing weakness and higher costs reduced management’s long-term earnings expectations for the business, leading to the $74.5 million impairment.

Pressure Pumping revenue, including acid, increased 3%, as modestly better pricing was partly offset by slightly lower pump hours. Customer delays and third-party logistics issues contributed to nonproductive time. Management said gas-burning equipment remains well utilized, but returns must improve before idle capacity is reactivated.

Management Guidance

RPC expects 2026 capital expenditures of $155 million to $175 million. Some equipment deliveries previously scheduled for 2026 have shifted into 2027. Assuming no further delays, management currently expects 2027 capital expenditures to be similar to 2026.

Management expects normal year-end seasonality to affect multiple service lines in Q4, although current customer schedules suggest the holiday slowdown could be less severe than in recent years. Customer schedules remain fluid.

For 2027, management described its outlook as “net positive” and said E&P operators appear encouraged by commodity prices. However, the company is not seeing a full-scale acceleration and did not provide specific revenue or earnings guidance.

Risks and Areas to Watch

• Persistent pricing weakness and cost pressure in Wireline have reduced Pintail’s expected long-term earnings contribution.
• Labor availability is tightening and affecting costs, although management said the challenge is not materially worse than in previous difficult labor markets.
• Inflation, demand concerns and geopolitical developments continue to create uncertainty for E&P activity.
• Normal holiday seasonality may reduce Q4 activity, while customer schedules remain subject to change.
• Some service lines require additional pricing improvement to justify equipment reinvestment.
• Free cash flow was constrained by strategic inventory purchases, scarce components, and the timing of customer collections and vendor payments.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Asked about early indications for 2027, management said it is optimistic but acknowledged continued uncertainty. A less pronounced Q4 slowdown could allow activity to restart more quickly in early 2027.

On labor competition from data-center construction and other industries, management confirmed some tightening in availability and higher costs but characterized it as a recurring industry challenge rather than an unusually severe disruption.

Regarding idle Pressure Pumping equipment, management said demand may exist for additional capacity, but pricing would need to rise significantly. RPC would also require a firm customer commitment before reactivating another crew and is not currently moving aggressively to bring equipment back into service.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for RPC Inc.'s Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call will be hosted by Ben Palmer, President and CEO; and Mike Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer. [Operator Instructions]

I would like to advise everyone that this conference call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Schmidt.

Michael Schmit

Thank you, and good morning. Before we begin, I want to remind you that some of the statements that will be made on this call could be forward-looking in nature and reflect a number of known and unknown risks. Please refer to our press release issued today, along with our 10-K and other public filings that outline those risks, all of which can be found on RPC's website at www.rpc.net.

In today's earnings release and conference call, we'll be referring to several non-GAAP measures of operating performance and liquidity. We believe these non-GAAP measures allow us to compare performance consistently over various periods. Our press release and our website contain reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Ben Palmer.

Ben Palmer

Thanks, Mike, and thank you for joining our call this morning. Today, we will talk about our third quarter results and provide you with a few operational highlights. While completion activity levels remained relatively subdued this quarter, RPC overall generated sequential revenue growth and particularly strong margin expansion driven by solid operational execution, strong cost leverage in several product lines, technology adoption and contributions from targeted investments.

Within Technical Services, Cudd Pressure Control's largest service line, Coiled Tubing, was up 20% sequentially. Coiled tubing revenue increased across all districts. Results during the quarter benefited from exceptionally strong job and equipment mix, which will be challenging to consistently replicate. We have taken delivery of the third 2 7/8-inch reel trailer. Recall, this is an upgrade to an existing unit and not an incremental unit.

We now have 2 additional units that are capable of a 2 7/8-inch reel-replacement upgrade. These large-diameter units continue to generate attractive utilization and support our strategy of investing in areas where we see strong full-cycle returns.

Cudd Pressure Control snubbing revenues were up 12% sequentially. The big bore snubbing unit, which went into service during the second quarter, saw its first full quarter of work during the third quarter. The unit is designed for cavern storage inspections, which is regulatory driven. This work has multiyear visibility, but likely has the strongest seasonality in the second and third quarter of each year.

Also within Technical Services, Thru Tubing Solutions downhole tools revenues decreased 2% sequentially, primarily on lower fishing activity after several strong quarters. We continue to experience growth in our core product offerings, resulting in growth in our Rocky Mountain, Northeast, Southeast and foreign districts. Thru Tubing Solutions is a market leader in downhole completion tools with a portfolio of products supported by proprietary technologies in our patent portfolio.

Our R&D team has developed a variety of enhanced tools and products that further our market leadership. Thru Tubing Solutions has introduced new sizes of MetalMax, its metal-on-metal power section, increasing availability and adoption across districts. Some of our early adopter districts have MetalMax utilized on more than half of their jobs.

MetalMax's performance and design characteristics are enabling entry into new markets and applications. The product reduces the number of trips an operator has to make out of hole, reducing nonproductive time and is capable of running in harsher conditions than traditional power sections. Our Thru Tubing Solutions team is pushing the limits with operators. During the quarter, our downhole tools set new depth records in the Bakken and Montney formations.

These results further validate the performance advantages of our technology portfolio and support continued market share gains. Overall, our downhole tools business is benefiting from more complex and longer laterals that are well suited for our technology solutions.

Turning to Wireline, revenues declined 8% sequentially. Pintail's EBITDA margins have consistently been in the mid-single-digit range for the last few quarters. While Pintail has maintained its leading Permian market position, persistent pricing weakness combined with increased cost pressures have reduced our initial long-term earnings expectations for this business.

Therefore, during the quarter, we recorded noncash impairment charges of $74.5 million related to Pintail Wireline. Cudd Energy Services' Pressure Pumping revenues, including acid, increased 3% sequentially. Pressure Pumping revenues benefited from slightly improved pricing but was offset by slightly lower pump hours. Pump hours were modestly impacted by non-Cudd nonproductive time, including customer delays, mostly related to third-party logistics issues.

Job mix was relatively consistent with the prior quarter. Both revenue and cost per pump hour increased marginally on a sequential basis. Our gas-burning Pressure Pumping equipment is well utilized with white space created by external factors. Industry spare capacity appears meaningfully lower than it was several quarters ago. We expect to maintain our current working fleets, and we'll wait for returns to further improve before reactivating equipment.

We have seen growing customer interest in our enhanced production techniques on existing wells. We were able to generate these revenues with non-gas-burning equipment and smaller crews. While customer schedules currently indicate holiday impacts may be somewhat less severe than the last several years, we still expect normal year-end seasonality to affect activity levels across many of our service lines and for customer schedules to remain fluid up until the holidays.

Macro volatility has persisted with inflation pressures occurring in multiple areas. E&P operators as a whole appear to be cautiously optimistic regarding commodity prices, although concerns around demand, inflation and geopolitical developments continue to create uncertainty. Overall, the oilfield service market is more constructive, but certain service lines need additional pricing improvements to justify reinvestment. We will continue prioritizing returns and focus on controlling factors we can influence.

With that, Mike will now discuss the quarter's financial results.

Michael Schmit

Thanks, Ben. Our third quarter financial results with sequential comparisons to the second quarter of 2026 are as follows: Revenues increased 1% to $468 million. Breaking down our operating segments, Technical Services, which represented 95% of our total third quarter revenues, were up 1%. Support Services, which represented 5% of revenues, were up 3%.

The following is a breakdown of our third quarter revenues for our largest service lines. Pressure Pumping, 30.8%; Downhole Tools, 24.6%; Wireline, 17.5%; Coiled Tubing, 10.4%; Cementing, 5.7%; Rental Tools, 3.8%. Together, these service lines accounted for 93% of our total revenues. Cost of revenues, excluding depreciation and amortization, was $350 million compared to $346 million in the previous quarter.

SG&A expenses were $51 million, largely unchanged from the $52 million in the prior quarter. Depreciation and amortization was $43 million, similar to the previous quarter. The impairment reduces future depreciation and amortization by approximately $3 million per quarter. The effective tax benefit rate was 19.2% during the quarter. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.10 in the third quarter.

Adjustments totaled $0.30 per share and related to the impairment charges and acquisition-related employment costs. Adjusted EBITDA was $71.5 million, up from $66 million in the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 100 basis points sequentially to 15.3%.

Several of our service lines experienced particularly strong activity during the quarter, and we expect normal seasonal patterns to potentially impact results as we move into the fourth quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities during the quarter was $41 million, and after CapEx of $40 million, free cash flow was $1 million. Free cash flow was impacted by working capital increasing $25 million during the quarter, primarily driven by strategic inventory purchases, including key components in short supply, as well as the timing of customer collections and vendor payments.

At quarter end, we had approximately $177 million in cash, a $30 million note payable and no borrowings on our $100 million revolving credit facility. Our regular cash dividend remains unchanged at $0.04 per share. Dividend payments totaled $27 million year-to-date. We expect 2026 capital expenditures in the range of $155 million to $175 million.

Certain equipment deliveries previously anticipated for 2026 are now expected in 2027, although additional timing changes remain possible. Assuming additional slippage does not occur, we currently expect 2027 CapEx to be similar to 2026. As always, we will evaluate CapEx based on returns and adjust spending based on our opportunities.

I'll now turn it back over to Ben for some closing remarks.

Ben Palmer

Thanks, Mike. While we remain cautious regarding the pace of broader industry improvement and the impact of normal year-end seasonality, we believe RPC is well positioned with a diverse portfolio of businesses, differentiated technologies, a strong balance sheet and the financial flexibility to pursue attractive opportunities while continuing to generate cash and deliver strong full-cycle returns.

I want to thank all of our employees who put in tremendous work to provide high levels of service and value to our customers. Thank you for joining us this morning.

And at this time, we're happy to address any questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Don Crist with Johnson Rice.

Question-and-Answer Session

Donald Crist

I wanted to ask about early '27 indications. We're hearing that some of the larger companies are looking to add more services as they, kind of, go into '27. I know most of your services outside of Pressure Pumping are in that realm. Just any, kind of, indication as to what '27 looks like just on an early look today?

Ben Palmer

Don, I appreciate you being on. Early '27, I would say that we are optimistic. As we indicated, we think the E&Ps, both the large and the small, are encouraged by commodity prices. And so we're feeling pretty good about next year. I would say net positive. Obviously, there's always uncertainty. We're not seeing full steam ahead, but clearly, we're set up and positioned and expect things.

Hopefully, the fourth quarter slowdown is going to be a little bit more muted than it has been in some of the past few years. And hopefully, we'll get off to a good start early next year. Oftentimes, when it slows down a lot in the fourth quarter, it takes a while to get cranked back up.

So maybe that slowdown will be a little more muted, and we can get the year started off pretty strongly and capture some of that enthusiasm that we think is out there that you're referring to.

Donald Crist

I appreciate that color. And you touched on this in the press release, but I wanted to ask about labor. We're hearing some pretty strong reports that data center construction and other industries are pulling away from the oilfield. And just wanted to know if you're experiencing any of that and seeing any inflation on the labor side as data centers ramp up.

Michael Schmit

Don, this is Mike. Yes, I think labor is tightening up a little bit and a lot of reasons for that. And we have -- it does impact cost and availabilities, which -- so I think some of the things you're hearing is probably consistent with some of the things we're seeing, too.

Ben Palmer

And I would say, Don, this is Ben, that that we always, over the years, have had competition for labor. So I wouldn't suggest or would say that this particular instance, it's not particularly more difficult than it has been in other past difficult times. So it's just something we deal with.

It's something we actually always have to deal with time to time. It just -- there's different reasons why there's -- labor can be difficult to attain and retain, but we are rocking along okay, but that is something that we do hear anecdotes about.

Donald Crist

Okay. And just the last one for me. You have some spare equipment sitting on the sidelines and some cash to refurbish it if you need to. Any thoughts as to reactivating another crew as we move into '27? Is the demand there?

Ben Palmer

If our additional capacity were ready to go tomorrow, there's a likelihood we could find a place for it to work, but we need pricing to move up quite a bit. We need to have a compelling reason. We would need to have some sort of firm commitment from a customer to be able to move in that direction.

So we're going to keep our additional capacity on the sideline at this point in time. We're doing some -- a little bit of prep behind the scenes over time, but we're not moving aggressively forward to try to reactivate more equipment at this time.

Operator

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Mr. Ben Palmer for closing remarks.

Ben Palmer

Well, appreciate you listening in this morning, and we're looking forward to a good 2027, and we appreciate you and hope you have a good rest of the day.

Operator

This concludes today's call. A reminder that the conference call will be replayed on www.rpc.net within 2 hours following the completion of the call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.