Newport Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. after the close of trading reported revenue and adjusted profits in the first quarter that blew away Wall Street expectations.
The country’s biggest builder and operator of natural-gas fueling stations posted revenue of $95.8 million, up 12% from a year earlier and topping analyst forecasts of $89.8 million.
Adjusted profits hit $2.8 million—a rare quarter in the black—compared to a net loss of $31.1 million a year earlier. Wall Street was looking for a net loss of $18 million.
The company said it delivered 77.5 million gallons of liquefied and compressed natural gas in the March quarter, up 3%.
Investors seized upon the strong earnings report, sending shares up nearly 3% to a market value of about $276.1 million in after-hours trading.
The report comes amid a gradual increase of natural gas adoption in the U.S., which now accounts for about one-third of domestic energy production, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and a volatile oil market, which hit yearly highs today as Canadian wildfires threaten major oil producers in the region.
Legendary oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens co-founded Clean Energy about 25 years ago as a tiny part of his Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum. He split it off in the late 1990s.
