What happened
Shares Forum Energy Technologies Inc (FET 0.72%) are getting pounded on Friday and were down more than 16% at 10:45 a.m. EST. Driving the downdraft was the oilfield products company's weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter report and worse-than-expected outlook.
So what
Forum Energy Technologies posted fourth-quarter revenue of $248 million. While that was 25% better than the third quarter, it was about $2 million below analysts' expectations. The reason revenue rose so sharply was that the company completed the acquisition of the 52% interest in Global Tubing that it didn't already own, which added $36 million in revenue during the quarter. However, even with that boost, the company reported an adjusted loss of $0.04 per share, which was $0.01 per share worse than the consensus estimate.
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In addition to the weaker-than-expected quarter, the company's guidance was a bit underwhelming. While Forum is "well positioned for growth going into 2018," according to CEO Prady Iyyanki, it only expects revenue between $240 million and $255 million in the first quarter. That's below the consensus estimate that revenue would be $258 million because "customer spending is off to a slow start in January," according to Iyyanki. That said, the company does expect customer activity to accelerate throughout the year, leading the CEO to be "confident about our ability to deliver a strong 2018."
Now what
With Friday's sell-off, Forum Energy's stock is down more than 50% over the past year, and back near the low it hit last summer when crude prices tumbled into the $40's. That said, with oil prices currently in the $60's and industry spending expected to improve later this year, the stock could rebound in 2018. However, even with that upside, there are better oil stocks to consider buying first.
