What Whiting Petroleum’s Earnings Trend Tells Us

As we can see in the graph below, Whiting Petroleum’s (WLL) earnings peaked in 2Q14 before falling victim to the energy price (USO) (UNG) crash in mid-2014. WLL’s earnings have been mostly negative since 1Q15 and have come in worse than expected for the past three quarters.

In 2Q16 however, WLL’s earnings were slightly better than the previous quarter but remained quite low on a YoY (year-over-year) basis.

By comparison, peers Newfield Exploration (NFX), Continental Resources (CLR), and Concho Resources (CXO) announced 2Q16 earnings of $0.32, -$0.18, and $0.26, respectively. NFX and CXO make up ~2% of the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE).

In the next part, we’ll look at Whiting’s revenue growth trend.