Earnings Labs

SM Energy Company (SM)

Q2 2025 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 1, 2025

$29.33

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+1.39%

1 Week

-1.58%

1 Month

+4.28%

vs S&P

+0.73%

Transcript

Patrick Allen Lytle

Management

Good afternoon. This is Pat Lytle, Senior Vice President of Finance. Welcome to SM Energy's Second Quarter 2025 Financial and Operating Results Webcast. Before we get started on our prepared remarks, I remind you that our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. I direct you to Slide 2 of the accompanying slide deck, Page 5 of the accompanying earnings release and the Risk Factors section of our most recently filed 10-K, which describe risks associated with forward-looking statements that could cause actual results to differ. We will also discuss non-GAAP measures and metrics. Definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures and metrics to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and discussion of forward-looking non-GAAP measures can be found in both the earnings release and slide deck. Today's prepared remarks will be given by our President and Chief Executive Officer, Herb Vogel; our Chief Operating Officer, Beth McDonald; and our Chief Financial Officer, Wade Pursell. I will now turn the call over to Herb.

Herbert S. Vogel

Management

Thanks, Pat, and good afternoon, everyone. We had a truly standout second quarter as record production volumes drove a strong financial beat across many metrics with the Uinta Basin standing out as a major driver of our success. We paid off our credit facility and built a cash balance of over $100 million, progressing nicely towards our 1x leverage target, which we expect to achieve near year-end in the current commodity price environment. Record production volumes totaled 209,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, exceeding the midpoint of guidance by 5%, driven by top-tier asset performance and strong execution. Uinta Basin volumes outpaced expectations, and our operations and marketing teams worked effectively to ensure timely sales by streamlining logistics and optimizing takeaway. These operational wins translated to bottom line strength with beats versus consensus for adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDAX and adjusted free cash flow. An important milestone was achieved during the second quarter. We successfully completed the integration of our Uinta Basin assets and entered the optimization phase. Our team is actively pursuing margin-enhancing opportunities across the entire value chain, optimizing well design and deepening their understanding of the 17 prospective intervals across our Uinta Basin acreage position. We are proud of the results we achieved during the first half of 2025. However, we recognize that the industry still faces challenges for likely the remainder of the year and into 2026, including the potential impact of OPEC+ supply decisions, sanctions, tariffs or other geopolitical tensions. While we can't predict these outcomes, we continue to manage commodity price volatility and risk through our hedging program. Additionally, our supply chain team continues to mitigate tariff-related risks and pursue deflationary savings. We are well positioned to weather a lower oil price environment, if it materializes due to our increased scale, low breakeven…

Elizabeth Anne McDonald

Management

Thank you, Herb. I'll begin on Slide 6 by stepping back to reflect on how far SM Energy has come over the past 5 years. Our growth has been intentional and strategic with the Uinta Basin acquisition serving a pivotal milestone, delivering a step change in scale and positioning us for even greater impact. This chart illustrates that since year-end 2020, we have significantly grown estimated net proved reserves and net production each by over 60% with an increase in oil mix contributing to higher production margins. Amazingly, over the same period, our share count remained flat, and we cut our leverage ratio by half from 2.3x at the end of 2020. We believe this to be a clear reflection of our team's execution and vision. And although we've been in business for nearly 120 years, we're just getting started. On Slide 7, we highlight many of our technology initiatives. One example is our talented technical team developed and advanced machine learning models to refine SM well designs. And through this workflow, we have realized the benefits of these investments by delivering stronger performing wells and higher cash flows. On a later slide, you will see this illustrated as our Howard County wells perform over 30% better than peer operated wells. Stay tuned as we continue to preview our innovative efforts. Next week marks our 16th Annual Geosciences and Technical Conference deemed next horizons, honoring our origins and forging ahead. I'm excited for our employees together for 3 days to learn from each other and collaborate on bold ideas as we build for the future. Moving on to the next couple of slides, you'll see familiar graphs plotting average cumulative oil production for our 3 core assets. What stands out is how each asset consistently delivers strong competitive results within…

A. Wade Pursell

Operator

Thank you, Beth. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I have 3 parts to my discussion this afternoon, and the summary is: one, performing at a high level; two, prioritizing debt reduction; and three, plan intact. If that's all you remember from my part, that will be enough. Now for some details. First, performing at a high level on Slide 14. The team performed at a very high level in the second quarter, delivering a record for quarterly net daily equivalent production and beating the midpoint of our guidance by 5%. Oil production was even stronger at 115,700 barrels per day or over 55% of total production. Financially, we delivered huge beats to consensus estimates, including adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDAX and adjusted free cash flow. Production outperformance was driven by a few factors. We successfully pulled forward some of our activity into the second quarter because of more efficient drilling and completion operations in the Midland and Uinta Basins. Importantly, with these higher-than-expected volumes, our team's efforts to streamline transportation logistics and optimize takeaway were key to selling the incremental barrels. In addition, our base production in Texas outperformed our expectations. Commodity prices were more challenged during the quarter than in the first quarter, but our hedges offset some of the weakness. On the cost side, operating costs were down 7% per BOE sequentially, driven by lower LOE and lower production taxes. We experienced lower LOE during Q2 due to the deferral of certain workover activities until the second half of the year and higher production volumes, resulting in fixed cost being lower on a per BOE basis. Lower production taxes resulted from lower realized commodity prices. Transportation expense per BOE was 5% higher sequentially due to the Uinta Basin becoming a greater part of our…