HollyFrontier (HFC) Tops Earnings & Revenue Estimates in Q3

SU PARR

HollyFrontier Corporation reported third-quarter 2017 net income per share (excluding special items) of $1.14 beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 89 cents. Further the income was also significantly ahead of the year-ago period profit of 42 cents. Strong results were driven by refining margins, higher sales volume and contribution from the PCLI unit.

Revenues of $3,719.2 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,541 million and climbed 30.6% from third-quarter 2016 sales of $2,847.3 million.

 

 

Segmental Information

Refining: Net income from the Refining segment — which is the main contributor to HollyFrontier earnings — was $408.7 million, surging a whopping 238% from the year-ago income of $121 million. The improvement reflects wider gross margins, which jumped 48% to $14.55 per barrel.

Total refined product sales volumes averaged 455,960 barrels per day (bpd), up 4.2% from the 437,700 bpd in the year-ago quarter. Moreover, throughput increased from 473,830 bpd in the year-ago quarter to 485,780 bpd. Capacity utilization, at 99.5%, was up from 97.1% in third-quarter 2016.

PCLI: Income from  Petro-Canada Lubricants Inc. (or PCLI) business — bought from Canadian oil and gas giant Suncor Energy Inc. (SU - Free Report) earlier this year — totaled $22.6 million. Product sales averaged 20,600 bpd, while production and throughput came in at 21,670 bpd and 22,360 bpd, respectively.

HEP: This unit includes HollyFrontier’s 36% interest in Holly Energy Partners L.P. , a publicly-traded master limited partnership that owns, operates, develops and acquires pipelines and other midstream assets.

Segment profitability was $43.5 million, up from $28.8 million in third-quarter 2016. Earnings were buoyed by higher segment sales.

Balance Sheet

As of Sep 30, 2017, HollyFrontier had approximately $630.7 million in cash and cash equivalents and $2,236.5 million in net long-term debt, representing a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 29%.

Share Performance

Shares of HollyFrontier have rallied 22.5% year to date, compared to the industry's gain of 7.1%.

 

 

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Headquartered in Texas, HollyFrontier carrries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (PARR - Free Report) is another top-ranked player in the same industry which presently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc., based in Houston, TX, is a diversified energy player that operates in four segments: Refining and Distribution, Retail, Commodity Marketing and Logistics, and Natural Gas and Oil. The company delivered average positive earnings surprise of 195.26% in the trailing four quarters.

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