Chesapeake Energy's Stock Soars After Surprise Adjusted Profit

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. surged 5.5% in premarket trade Thursday, after the oil and natural gas company surprisingly reported an adjusted profit for the first time in six quarters. The net loss for the quarter to Sept. 30 narrowed to $1.2 billion, or $1.54 a share, from $4.7 billion, or $7.08 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding certain non-recurring items, but including a gain from the sale of certain proceeds, adjusted earnings per share came to 9 cents, compared with the FactSet consensus of a per-share loss of 3 cents. Total revenue fell to $2.28 billion from $3.38 billion, as oil and gas revenue of $1.18 beat the FactSet consensus of $1.02 billion, and marketing and other revenue of $1.10 billion missed expectations of $1.23 billion. Oil equivalent production slipped to 59 millions of barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) from 61 mmboe, missing the FactSet consensus of 61.6 mmboe. The stock has run up 18% year to date through Wednesday, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has climbed 13% and the S&P 500 has gained 2.6%.