Shares of Clean Energy Fuels Corp. were down about 2% in midday trading Tuesday after the Newport Beach-based company reported first-quarter revenue and adjusted profits that missed Wall Street expectations.
The company reported results after markets closed Monday. Investors seized upon the poor performance and sent shares down 6% in extended trading to a market value of about $750 million. Shares regained most of that ground by Tuesday morning, to a $783 million market cap.
The country’s biggest builder and operator of natural-gas fueling stations posted revenue of $85.8 million, down 9.9% from a year earlier. Analysts on average had forecast sales of about $100.6 million.
Chief Executive Andrew Littlefair attributed the drop to lower fuel prices and softening global demand that affected its compressor manufacturing unit.
The company reported a net loss of $31.1 million, up from a loss of $28.5 million a year earlier. Wall Street was looking for a net loss of $24.5 million.
Clean Energy said it delivered 75.2 million gallons of liquefied and compressed natural gas, up 27%.
It entered the year with high hopes it could sustain long-term profitability—a longtime knock on the company—as it reined in construction costs of a nationwide plan it started four years ago to dot major highways with natural-gas fueling stations.
Speculative buildouts were largely eliminated this year as the company focused on existing fleets and big, longer-term customers that fuel up at its network of more than 535 stations in 42 states.
Clean Energy raised $450 million in 2011 as part of its effort to build “America’s Natural Gas Highway,” a network of natural-gas stations spread out about every 250 miles along major transportation arteries in California, Texas, the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast.
Major backers included cofounder and legendary oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens and Oklahoma City-based giant Chesapeake Energy Corp.
