Offshore oil and gas engineering firm Acergy SA said Wednesday that it swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter loss due to a large tax charge, but the stock climbed in afternoon trading.
Acergy reported a loss of $18.8 million, or 10 cents per share, for the quarter ended Nov. 30, on $754.3 million in revenue. A year ago, the company earned $68 million, or 35 cents per share, on $612.8 million in revenue. The company took a $102 million charge for taxes as a result of audits, along with a $27 million charge due to delays in building a pipeline for a Brazilian company.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected Acergy to earn 35 cents per share for the quarter. For the full year, it earned $153.6 million, or 74 cents per share.
Acergy also said it received a $195 million contract from EnCana Corp., a Canadian oil and gas company.
In afternoon trading, shares of Acergy stock rose $1.32, or 7.3 percent, to $19.30, as investors found positive news for the British company. Analyst Kelly Chancey of Capital One Southcoast said the undersea and offshore engineering markets look strong.
"(Acergy) expects subsea engineering and construction demand to remain strong beyond 2010 with deepwater projects now beginning to be awarded in West Africa after delays, steady demand in Brazil and growth in Asia and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico deepwater markets," Chancey wrote.
The stock trades in the U.S. in the form of American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs, which are securities that allow U.S. investors to trade shares of companies based overseas.
Elsewhere in the sector, ADRs of CGG Veritas, a French oil and gas services company, rose $2.60, or 5.9 percent, to $48.26 in afternoon trading. CGG Veritas is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter revenue Thursday.
Oil company ADRs also rose, with shares of Norway's StatoilHydro ASA gaining 82 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $27.50, and shares of Royal Dutch Shell PLC rising $1.47, or 2.1 percent, to $71.09.
The Bank of New York Europe ADR index moved up 2.16 points to 169.32, and the bank's oil and gas ADR index advanced 3.50 points to 183.68.
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