Teleconferência de Resultados do 3T26 da RPC (RES): Expansão de Margem e Impairment de US$ 74,5 Milhões

Principais Destaques

• A RPC Inc. (NYSE: RES) relatou receita de US$ 468 milhões no 3º trimestre de 2026, com alta de 1% na comparação sequencial, apesar da atividade de completação relativamente fraca.
• O EBITDA ajustado subiu para US$ 71,5 milhões, ante US$ 66 milhões no 2º trimestre, enquanto a margem EBITDA ajustada se expandiu em 100 pontos-base, atingindo 15,3%.
• O LPA diluído ajustado foi de US$ 0,10. Os ajustes somaram US$ 0,30 por ação, refletindo principalmente um impairment sem efeito de caixa de US$ 74,5 milhões relacionado à Pintail Wireline e custos de contratação vinculados a aquisições.
• A receita de Coiled Tubing aumentou 20% no comparativo sequencial, enquanto a de Snubbing subiu 12% e a de Pressure Pumping, incluindo acidificação, avançou 3%. A receita de Wireline recuou 8%.
• O fluxo de caixa operacional foi de US$ 41 milhões. Após US$ 40 milhões em despesas de capital, o fluxo de caixa livre ficou em US$ 1 milhão, em parte devido a um aumento de US$ 25 milhões no capital de giro.
• A administração espera que a sazonalidade normal de fim de ano afete a atividade do 4º trimestre, mas está otimista em relação a 2027, enquanto enfatiza que são necessários preços mais altos e compromissos firmes dos clientes antes de reativar capacidade adicional de Pressure Pumping.

Principais Dados Financeiros

A expectativa é que o impairment reduza a depreciação e amortização futuras em cerca de US$ 3 milhões por trimestre. A RPC manteve seu dividendo trimestral regular em US$ 0,04 por ação, com pagamentos de dividendos no acumulado do ano totalizando US$ 27 milhões.

Desempenho Operacional e dos Negócios

O Pressure Pumping foi a maior linha de serviços da RPC, representando 30,8% da receita do 3º trimestre, seguido por Downhole Tools (24,6%), Wireline (17,5%), Coiled Tubing (10,4%), Cimentação (5,7%) e Ferramentas de Aluguel (3,8%). Juntos, esses negócios geraram 93% da receita total.

A receita de Coiled Tubing aumentou 20% no comparativo sequencial em todos os distritos, impulsionada por um mix favorável de serviços e equipamentos que a administração afirmou que pode ser difícil de replicar de forma consistente. A RPC recebeu um terceiro reboque de carretel de 2 7/8 polegadas como atualização de uma unidade existente e possui duas unidades adicionais elegíveis para atualizações semelhantes.

A receita de Snubbing subiu 12%. A unidade de snubbing de grande diâmetro colocada em serviço durante o 2º trimestre completou seu primeiro trimestre integral de operação. Seus trabalhos de inspeção de armazenamento em cavernas possuem visibilidade plurianual, mas a expectativa é que sejam mais ativos no segundo e no terceiro trimestres.

A receita de Downhole Tools recuou 2%, devendo-se principalmente à menor atividade de pescaria após vários trimestres fortes. O crescimento continuou nos produtos principais e nos distritos das Montanhas Rochosas, Nordeste, Sudeste e no exterior. A adoção da seção de potência metal-metal MetalMax expandiu-se, com alguns distritos pioneiros utilizando-a em mais da metade de seus serviços. A RPC também relatou novos recordes de profundidade para ferramentas de fundo de poço nas formações de Bakken e Montney.

A receita de Wireline caiu 8%. As margens EBITDA da Pintail permaneceram na faixa média de dígitos únicos, e a fraqueza persistente nos preços e os custos mais elevados reduziram as expectativas de lucros de longo prazo da administração para o negócio, levando ao impairment de US$ 74,5 milhões.

A receita de Pressure Pumping, incluindo acidificação, aumentou 3%, já que preços ligeiramente melhores foram parcialmente compensados por horas de bombeamento um pouco menores. Atrasos de clientes e problemas de logística de terceiros contribuíram para o tempo não produtivo. A administração afirmou que os equipamentos movidos a gás continuam bem utilizados, mas os retornos precisam melhorar antes que a capacidade ociosa seja reativada.

Projeções da Administração

A RPC espera despesas de capital entre US$ 155 milhões e US$ 175 milhões para 2026. Algumas entregas de equipamentos anteriormente agendadas para 2026 foram adiadas para 2027. Assumindo que não haja novos atrasos, a administração espera atualmente que as despesas de capital de 2027 sejam semelhantes às de 2026.

A administração espera que a sazonalidade normal de fim de ano afete múltiplas linhas de serviços no 4º trimestre, embora os cronogramas atuais dos clientes sugiram que a desaceleração nas festas de fim de ano possa ser menos severa do que em anos recentes. Os cronogramas dos clientes permanecem instáveis.

Para 2027, a administração descreveu suas perspectivas como “positivas no balanço geral” e afirmou que as operadoras de E&P parecem encorajadas pelos preços das commodities. No entanto, a empresa não observa uma aceleração em ampla escala e não forneceu orientações específicas de receita ou lucro.

Riscos e Pontos de Atenção

• A fraqueza persistente nos preços e a pressão de custos em Wireline reduziram a contribuição de lucros de longo prazo esperada da Pintail.
• A disponibilidade de mão de obra está ficando restrita e afetando os custos, embora a administração tenha declarado que o desafio não é materialmente pior do que em mercados de trabalho difíceis do passado.
• A inflação, as preocupações com a demanda e os desdobramentos geopolíticos continuam a criar incerteza para a atividade de E&P.
• A sazonalidade normal de fim de ano pode reduzir a atividade no 4º trimestre, enquanto os cronogramas dos clientes permanecem sujeitos a alterações.
• Algumas linhas de serviços exigem melhorias adicionais nos preços para justificar novos investimentos em equipamentos.
• O fluxo de caixa livre foi limitado por compras estratégicas de estoques, componentes escassos e pelo momento do recebimento de clientes e pagamentos a fornecedores.

Destaques da Sessão de Perguntas e Respostas

Quando questionada sobre os primeiros indícios para 2027, a administração disse estar otimista, mas reconheceu a incerteza contínua. Uma desaceleração menos pronunciada no 4º trimestre poderia permitir que a atividade fosse retomada mais rapidamente no início de 2027.

Sobre a concorrência por mão de obra vinda da construção de data centers e outros setores, a administração confirmou certa restrição na disponibilidade e custos mais elevados, mas caracterizou a situação como um desafio recorrente do setor e não como uma perturbação atipicamente severa.

Em relação aos equipamentos ociosos de Pressure Pumping, a administração afirmou que pode haver demanda por capacidade adicional, mas os preços teriam de subir significativamente. A RPC também exigiria um compromisso firme do cliente antes de reativar outra equipe e não está se movimentando agressivamente no momento para colocar os equipamentos de volta em serviço.

Transcrição Completa da Teleconferência de Resultados

Transcrição completa da teleconferência de resultados

Comentários da administração

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.

Perguntas e respostas

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.