Patterson-UTI Energy Q4 Loss Narrower Than Expected, Revenues Beat

Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. PTEN reported a fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted net loss of 2 cents per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of an 11-cent loss, and an improvement from the year-ago quarter's loss of 12 cents. The better-than-expected performance was primarily backed by improvement in the company’s Completions Services segment and a reduction in operating costs and expenses.

Total revenues of $1.2 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5%. This was driven by higher-than-expected revenues from Completion Services. The Completion Services segment reported revenues of $701.6 million, which beat the consensus mark of $647 million. However, the top line decreased about 1% year over year. This underperformance can be attributed to the decrease in year-over-year revenue contribution from Drilling Services, Drilling Products and Other Services segments.

Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. Quote

PTEN’s board of directors raised the quarterly dividend by 25% to 10 cents per share, payable on March 16, 2026, to its common shareholders of record as of March 2.

Segmental Performances of Patterson-UTI Energy

Drilling Services: Revenues in this segment totaled $360.8 million, down 11.6% from the prior-year quarter’s figure of $408.4 million and missed our estimation of $365 million.

Operating income amounted to $43 million compared with $73 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The figure beat our operating income estimate of $37.7 million.

Completion Services: This segment’s revenues of $701.6 million increased about 7.8% from the year-ago quarter’s figure of $650.8 million. Moreover, the metric beat our estimation of $647 million.

Operating loss totaled $3.6 million compared with a loss of $50.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 and was narrower than our estimate of $38.6 million.

Drilling Products: This segment’s revenues of $83.8 million decreased about 3.2% from the year-ago quarter’s figure of $86.5 million and missed our estimation of $85 million.

Operating profit totaled $6.8 million, compared with a loss of $0.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The number also beat our operating profit estimate of $4.6 million.

Other Services: Revenues amounted to $4.7 million, down 71.3% from the year-ago quarter’s figure of $16.4 million and missed our estimation of $4.8 million.

Operating loss amounted to $0.95 million against a profit of $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The figure was wider than our estimation of an operating loss of $0.26 million.

PTEN’s Capital Expenditure & Financial Position

In the reported quarter, PTEN spent $138.5 million on capital programs compared with $140.3 million in the prior-year period.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, the company had cash and cash equivalents worth $420.6 million and long-term debt of $1.2 billion. Its debt-to-capitalization was 27.5%.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company reported total operating costs and expenses of $1151 million compared with $1193.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Patterson-UTI Energy’s Q1 2026 Outlook

The company anticipates an average rig count in the range of low-to-mid 90s for its Drilling Services segment in the first quarter of 2026, with the adjusted gross profit to decline by less than 5% from the fourth quarter of 2025.

For the Completion Services segment, PTEN anticipates adjusted gross profit to be approximately $95 million in the upcoming first quarter. It expects its Drilling Products segment's adjusted gross profit to improve slightly sequentially, though U.S. results may be impacted by lower activity.

The company expects other segments to have a flat sequential adjusted gross profit in the first quarter of 2026.

PTEN anticipates first-quarter selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses to be about $65 million. Furthermore, the company expects total depreciation, depletion, amortization and impairment expense to be approximately $225 million for the upcoming quarter.

PTEN anticipates net capital expenditures (after asset sales) to be less than $500 million for full-year 2026.

Important Earnings at a Glance

While we have discussed PTEN’s fourth-quarter results in detail, let us take a look at three other key reports in this space.

Suncor Energy Inc. SU reported fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted operating earnings of 79 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 77 cents. This outperformance can be attributed to strong production growth in its upstream segment. However, the bottom line declined from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure of 89 cents due to lower upstream price realizations.

Operating revenues of $8.8 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4%, primarily driven by increased sales volumes in both the upstream and downstream segments. However, the top line decreased approximately 1.3% year over year.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, SU had cash and cash equivalents of C$3.65 billion and long-term debt of C$9 billion. Its debt-to-capitalization was 16.7%.

Oil and gas equipment and services provider Halliburton Company HAL reported a fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted net income per share of 69 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 54 cents. The outperformance primarily reflects successful cost reduction initiatives. However, the bottom line marginally fell from the year-ago adjusted profit of 70 cents due to softer activity in the North American region.

Houston, TX-based oil and gas equipment and services company’s revenues of $5.7 billion increased 0.8% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.7%.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, HAL had approximately $2.2 billion in cash/cash equivalents and $7.2 billion in long-term debt, representing a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 40.5.

Another oil field service company, Liberty Energy Inc. LBRT, reported a fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted net profit of 5 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 16 cents by a considerable margin. The outperformance was driven by the company’s focus on technological innovation and strong operational execution. However, the bottom line decreased from the year-ago quarter’s profit of 10 cents.

LBRT's revenues totaled $1 billion, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $862 million. The top line also increased from the prior-year quarter’s $944 million by 10%, driven by higher activity levels that meaningfully exceeded the industry.

As of Dec. 31, Liberty Energy had approximately $28 million in cash and cash equivalents. The pressure pumper’s long-term debt of $241.5 million represented a debt-to-capitalization of 10.4%.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research