NE $57.02 1Q earnings up 54%, 0.75 dividend.
Noble Corp 1st-qtr profit soars 54 pct, tops Street
Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:16pm EDT
HOUSTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Noble Corp (NE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday its first-quarter earnings rose 54 percent, exceeding Wall Street estimates, as oil and gas exploration companies paid higher day rates for its offshore drilling rigs.
Shares of Noble jumped 3 percent to $58.60 in post-market trading.
Profit soared to $384 million, or $1.43 per diluted share, from $250 million, or 93 cents per diluted share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
The 2008 results included a charge of 3 cents per share related to a bribery probe of the company's Nigerian operations. Excluding the charge, the company earned $1.46 per share.
On that basis, analysts, on average, expected a profit of $1.32 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
The average daily rental rate for the company's rigs jumped 35 percent from a year ago to $163,772.
Sugar Land, Texas-based Noble added almost $5 billion in possible revenue backlog during the first quarter.
Quarterly revenue was $861 million, up from $646 million.
Tight supplies and booming demand from energy companies have driven rates for offshore drilling rigs sharply higher. In recent weeks, rates for some rigs capable of drilling in ultradeep water have topped $600,000 per day.
Noble has 62 rigs operating in areas including Brazil, the Middle East, India and West Africa.
In regular trading, the stock fell 2.3 percent to $57.02 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
AI
