Hunting plc says its profit tanked 63% in the fiscal first half

Hunting plc (LON: HTG) said on Thursday that its profit in the first half (H1) of the current fiscal year came in 63% lower on a year over year basis. The company attributed the decline to the Coronavirus pandemic that fuelled a historic slump in global oil prices. But in the fourth quarter, it expressed confidence, market is expected to show signs of improvement. Earlier in August, Hunting expressed plans of closing its loss-making manufacturing facility in Canada.

Following an unprecedented decline in April, crude oil prices recovered significantly in recent months. On a year to date basis, however, prices are still down over 30% in 2020.

CEO Jim Johnson’s comments on Hunting’s H1 results

CEO Jim Johnson of the oilfield services group commented on the update on Thursday and said:

“Enquiry levels have improved with the increasing average oil price and areas of the U.S. onshore market indicate that the mid-point of the year could have been the bottom of the cycle, with cautious steps being taken by our clients to incrementally restart operations.”

Hunting is a prominent name in the league of British companies that manufacture tools for oil and gas exploration. The group declared 1.51 pence of second interim dividend per share on Thursday. The London-based company also expressed confidence in its cost-cutting programme that it said will result in roughly £198 million of savings annually.

Hunting’s EBITDA sinks to £21.50 million in H1

At £21.50 million, Hunting’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) in the six months that concluded on 30^th June were reported significantly lower than £58.60 million in the comparable period of last year. In separate news from the UK, recruitment firm Hays plc said on Wednesday that its annual pre-tax profit slid to £86.30 million in fiscal 2020.

Hunting plc remained almost flat in premarket trading on Thursday. But on market open, the stock jumped about 13% to hit an intraday high of 193 pence per share. On a year to date basis, the oilfield services company is still more than 50% down in the stock market. In late May, its per-share price had sunk to 152 pence.

Hunting’s performance in 2019 was also downbeat with an annual decline of roughly 15%. At the time of writing, The British firm has a market cap of £307.78 million and has a price to earnings ratio of 10.45.