Transocean Inc. (NYSE: RIG), the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, reported its first quarter earnings this morning, and surprised Wall Street by posting a profit that more than doubled for the quarter.
The company said its quarterly profit jumped to $1.19 billion boosted by soaring crude oil prices. The offshore drilling contractor also benefited from strong sales from its acquired competitor GlobalSantaFe Corp. Going into today's earnings announcement, analysts had been expecting the company to post a profit of $3.33 a share, but Transocean surprised everyone by earning $3.80 a share during the quarter. This is a nice rebound from the same period last year when the the world's largest offshore oil driller reported earnings of $2.62 a share.
Looking at revenue, Transocean said its quarterly sales sales more than doubled to $3.11 billion, compared with $1.33 billion in the same period a year ago, helped by strong sales from GlobalSantaFe. Analysts, on average, were expecting the company show $3.05 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.
Despite its positive earnings numbers, investors were not too impressed as the company showed worries about demand for deepwater drilling rigs that could offset supply. "The deepwater market will remain supply-constrained for a long time," Transocean's Chief Executive Bob Long stated.
As of 12:00, the stock is down slightly to $157.48.
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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