Helmerich & Payne Alters Capex View, Issues Quarterly Payout

Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) recently revised its guidance for capital expenditure and provided a corporate update on its scope of operations.

For fiscal 2019, the company had earlier projected its capex outlook between $500 million and $530 million. It now envisions its total budget to be $5-$15 million, below the lower end of its previous guided range.

Additionally, for fiscal 2020, the company recommends a preliminary outlay of roughly $300 million constituting super-spec walking capabilities worth $35 million in the United States along with some international super-spec upgrades, provided a spurt in demand is created for such rigs. The official confirmation regarding the spending budget for the next fiscal year will be given by the board of directors in first-quarter fiscal 2020.

Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, the company averages an active rig count of 200 as of Sep 4, 2019. This is in line with its previous view, which suggested that the company’s active rig count will fall 6-7% sequentially. Further, this would indicate a 5-6% quarterly dip in revenue days.

The US-based drilling entity is currently undertaking steps to verify and analyze the financial consequences in Argentina resulting from the two recent government decrees that might as well influence both the exchange rate and the currency controls.

Apart from the guidance renewal, Helmerich & Payne has announced a quarterly cash dividend of 71 cents per share of its common stock, which is likely to be paid out on Dec 2, 2019 to the stockholders of record as of Nov 11.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Helmerich & Payne carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).Better-ranked players in the energy space include BP (LON:BP) Midstream Partners (NYSE:BPMP) , Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ) and World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE:INT) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

BP Midstream’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters.

Dril-Quip earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the previous four quarters.

World Fuel Services earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters.

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