Earnings Alert: COP Misses by 18 Cents; Share Down Almost 3% In Pre-Market Trading -- July 28, 2016

Press release here. Two data points from the release:

• a second-quarter 2016 net loss of $1.1 billion, or ($0.86) per share, compared with a second-quarter 2015 net loss of $179 million, or ($0.15) per share. Excluding special items, second-quarter 2016 adjusted earnings were a net loss of $985 million, or ($0.79) per share, compared with second-quarter 2015 adjusted earnings of $81 million, or $0.07 per share
• exceeded second-quarter guidance with production of 1,546 MBOED; increasing full-year guidance

From a SeekingAlpha contributor before earnings were released:

While the outlook remains bleak for ConocoPhillips (for the entire industry I might add), Thursday will be a big day.

Investors could salvage some of their losses if ConocoPhillips beat earnings.

But on a fundamental level, I don't think that earnings matter too much in that much of ConocoPhillips' value is derived from the value of its reserves and the value of future production, which means that future oil prices matter a lot more than what happened from April to June. However, there are a couple of things that could significantly alter investors' existing view of the company, for better or for worse.

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Whiting

Whiting reported yesterday (previously reported).

From a contributor over at SeekingAlpha: some big changes over at Whiting. Summary:

• shares of Whiting fell in after-hours trading after the company reported financial results for the quarter
• however, data was actually quite positive in my opinion, as can be seen by looking at its cost structure and its debt reduction plan in action
• add to this strong free cash flow and a little better hedging and it's clear management has a clear mindset about how it's approaching the downturn

Although not quite as meaningful as the other issues discussed above, I estimated that Whiting's cash flow (I was referring to free cash flow) would come in between $75 million and $80 million for the quarter. Operating cash flow for the quarter was a hefty $161 million, a meaningful drop from the prior year's first quarter, when the business's cash flow totaled $326 million. However, after you subtract capital expenditures, free cash flow for the second quarter came out to $81.6 million, slightly above my expectations.

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Baker Huges -- Oh, Oh

Bigger losses than expected.  90 cents vs 60 cents. Wow. Compare to a loss of 14 cents same quarter last year.

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Enterprise Products -- Oh, Oh

Misses. Net income 27 cents vs 31 cents forecast.

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Ford

WSJ: Ford's profit fall 9% on lower China sales.

The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker reported a profit of $2 billion in the just-ended quarter, compared with $2.2 billion in the same year-ago period. The company said operating profit equaled 52 cents per share, 8 cents lower than analyst expectations of 60 cents a share.

Revenue rose 6% to $39.5 billion versus $37.3 billion a year ago.