Vitesse Energy, Inc. (VTS) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Greetings. Welcome to the Vitesse Energy Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to the Director, Investor Relations and Business Development at Vitesse, Ben Messier. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining. Today we will be discussing our second quarter 2026 results. Our 10-Q and earnings release were released yesterday after market close, and a newly redesigned investor presentation can be found on the Vitesse website. We encourage everyone to spend time with the new presentation. It lays out Vitesse's business model, capital allocation framework, and dividend philosophy in greater detail, and we will touch on many of these themes this morning. I'm joined this morning by our CEO and President, Jamie Benard, and our CFO, James Henderson. Before we begin, please be reminded that this call may contain estimates, projections, and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to several risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Please review our earnings release and risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC for additional information. In addition, today's discussion may reference non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, please reference our 10-Q and earnings release. Now, I will turn the call over to Vitesse's CEO and President, Jamie Benard.

Thanks, Ben. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. I want to start this morning by addressing something directly. Over the past several months, following this year's resizing of our dividend and leadership transition, we've received a number of questions about whether Vitesse's strategy has changed. The answer is simple. It has not. Our priorities are what they've always been, pay a durable dividend funded by free cash flow, allocate capital only where returns exceed our hurdle rates, and maintain a strong, conservative balance sheet. I'd like to spend a few minutes this morning on why we have such conviction in this strategy. The commitment starts with the dividend, which is our primary use of cash. Last week, our Board declared a third-quarter cash dividend at an annualized rate of $1.75 per share. This marks the 15th consecutive quarter, every quarter since our January 2023 Spin-off, without interruption that we've declared a dividend, bringing the total cumulative dividends declared to $7.6375 per share. That's half our current share price returned to shareholders in under 4 years. I also want to be clear about how we think about the dividend, because it's the primary output of our entire business model, not a residual. We size the dividend at a level that Free Cash Flow can cover and allow for economic reinvestment. The current dividend was set with exactly that durability in mind, and every dollar of reinvestment we make is screened to support it. We then hedge to protect cash flows. After the dividend, we allocate capital strictly by rate of return. Priorities are organic CapEx on our existing acreage, then near-term drilling opportunities, then producing-property acquisitions. Throughout this process, we maintain a conservative balance sheet targeting a net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of less than 1x. Our organic acreage conversion continues to drive results and is our highest-return opportunity. As of June 30, 2026, we had 19.4 net wells in our development pipeline, including 6.4 net wells that were either drilling or completing, and another 13 net locations that had been permitted for development. Every well proposal is a stand-alone election underwritten at Strip Prices through Luminis, our proprietary data platform. And since 2023, 93% of the wells proposed on our acreage have cleared our return hurdles. We also consistently evaluate and underwrite opportunities for acquiring larger producing properties. Our combination of non-op expertise with operating capabilities provides enhanced flexibility in our investment strategy. We remain focused on pursuing only those opportunities that meet our rigorous return thresholds, are accretive to Net Asset Value and Distributable Cash Flow per share, and support the dividend. And we are selective at scale. Since 2013, Vitesse has closed 175 acquisitions comprised of both near-term development and 5 larger producing property acquisitions, in total representing roughly $800 million of acquisition spend. Because field-level work sits on our operating partners, new non-op assets integrate into Luminis without materially increasing G&A costs, thereby further driving shareholder value. This is the heart of the non-op model, it is why the business is built for durability. We own fractional interests in 7,868 productive wells across more than 30 leading operators in the Williston, Powder River, and DJ basins. An average working interest of roughly 3.6% per well. So, no single well can make or break Vitesse's results. And the returns have been there since 2022. Cash Return on Capital Invested has averaged approximately 14%, well above our weighted average cost of capital. The trend towards 3- and 4-mile laterals in the Williston Basin continues across our acreage, driving greater efficiencies. These extended laterals reduce cost-per-foot for well participation while delivering higher EURs. Year-to-date 2026, 3-mile or longer laterals constitute 69% of our AFEs, resulting in an average lateral length of nearly 15,000 feet, marking a 38% increase from 2022. On a per-foot basis, these longer laterals cost approximately 25% less than traditional 2-mile laterals, significantly enhancing capital efficiency. Just as important, longer laterals decline more slowly, which flattens out our corporate base decline, reducing the maintenance capital required to hold production flat and leaves more cash flow available for the dividend. And finally, our interests are aligned with yours. As shareholders ourselves, every capital allocation decision we make is guided by a single objective, creating durable long-term value per share through a sustainable dividend, disciplined capital allocation, and a strong balance sheet. I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Jimmy Henderson.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks, Jamie. I want to highlight just a few items from our financial results for the second quarter of 2026. You can refer to our earnings release and 10-Q, both of which were filed last night, for any further details. Production for the second quarter averaged 17,354 barrels of oil equivalent per day, a sequential increase of 9% from the first quarter, with a 60% oil cut. Oil production contributed 95% of total revenue in this quarter. These results include contributions from the Powder River Basin Acquisition that we closed early in April. For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $40.2 million, and we had Adjusted Net Income of $1.8 million. GAAP Net Income was $33.1 million, driven by a $40.2 million of unrealized hedging gains. As a reminder, this gain is due to the forward price of oil at June 30 and is a non-cash item. Despite the volatility of our Unrealized Gains and Losses, our cumulative realized hedge loss since Spin-off is less than 1% of total revenue during that period. Hedging creates a margin of safety around our dividend, which locks in a revenue floor through downturns in commodity prices. Free Cash Flow for the quarter was $16.3 million, after $21.1 million of development capital expenditures. With our hedge book now extending into 2029, we remain well-positioned to support our $1.75 annualized dividend. As for the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with a Total Debt of $158.5 million, putting Net Debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA at just less than 1x on a last-quarter annualized basis, which is in line with our target. Total liquidity before internal cash flows sits at roughly $117 million. I would also highlight the simplicity of our capital structure. It consists of our revolving credit facility and common shares. So no senior notes, no preferred stock, no convertibles. That simplicity is deliberate. It keeps the dividend protected and the balance sheet ready to act on opportunities. We also maintain a $60 million share-repurchase authorization, which provides some flexibility alongside the dividend. We have opportunistically layered on additional oil hedges through the end of 2029 at a weighted-average price of approximately $67, which is supportive to our dividend. For the remainder of 2026, we have approximately 70% of our oil production hedged through swaps and collars with a weighted-average floor of $63.57 and a ceiling of $66.53 per barrel. We have approximately half our 2026 natural-gas production hedged through collars with a weighted-average floor of $3.73 and a ceiling of $4.90 per MMBtu. Both percentages of hedged oil and natural gas volumes are based on our midpoint of the revised-annual guidance. We did revise our 2026 annual guidance for the remainder of the year by narrowing the ranges. Annual production has been narrowed to 16,300 to 17,200 Boe per day, with the tightened oil as a percentage of oil production now at 60% to 62%. We raised the bottom end of our total cash capital expenditure guidance, which now ranges from $65 million to $80 million for the year. Taken together, a hedge book extending into 2029, leverage at target, ample liquidity, and simple capital-structure, we believe Vitesse is well positioned to fund the dividend through the cycle. With that, let me pass the call back to the operator for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Jeff Grampp with Northland Capital Markets.

Hey, good morning, guys. I was curious, you know, last quarter, obviously, markets are dynamic and things can change from call to call given a few months' time. But you guys had mentioned operated activity as a potential vector for some organic growth CapEx. Any update there on contemplations there? And was that a factor at all with respect to the narrowing of the CapEx guide?

Hey Jeff, this is Jamie. I'll take that one. Yes, on the operated piece for development, we are in the heat of evaluating that. You know, when we talk about extended laterals, that's obviously the optimal situation. So we're looking at acreage that is operated by others around us to see if there's partnering opportunities to extend those laterals. And so, more to come there, and it's very much in the works right now.

Understood. That makes a lot of sense. And my follow-up, first off, I have a new slide deck that you guys put up. You know, on slide, I think it's 10, that you guys kind of talk about different investment buckets. And just curious to get an update, maybe in particular buckets 3 and 4 for near-term development acquisitions and producing property acquisitions. Like what's the latest on those markets? Obviously, very volatile commodity markets. So I imagine underwriting dynamics kind of change day to day, but is that affecting your ability to transact or having an impact on timing of deals you're looking at? Just any kind of updates in those particular markets would be interesting.

Thanks, Jeff. Yes, I'm glad you like the slide deck. We put it out for that exact reason. We get a lot of questions over the last 2.5 years since being public around the different buckets where we allocate capital and wanted to be clear on the differences between each one and where we source them and how we underwrite them. I would say the near-term development acquisition market has gotten a little bit more competitive in the last year or two. You can just tell from the dollars we spend each year on acquisitions that we're not spending quite as much as we have in prior years. Big reason for that is we kept our return hurdles high there, and we're hesitant to adjust those downwards. To the extent we can buy near-term drilling, it's a really, really economic use of our capital. The producing property acquisitions, there was an article that came out about how deal flow slowed down in the second quarter. We did not find that to be true in the non-op specific part of the market. There were a lot of large packages that came to market in our backyard right after the Iran war started. So talking Powder River Basin, DJ Basin, Williston Basin, which obviously is where we have a lot of data with our Luminis system. And what's nice about these larger packages is they generate a lot of cash flow on day 1, and we tend to be able to buy those at sort of teens to low 20% free cash flow yields for the next few years. So obviously, very accretive to the dividend and coverage in general of that dividend. So that market has been very robust. I think there are some soft spots in that market that are less competitive than other basins. And we're doing everything we can do to exploit that advantage that we have in data, and cost of capital, and access to deal flow.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good morning. I just wondered, with a full quarter now, a little more of the Powder River Basin acquisition under your belt, just wondered if you had any updated thoughts either in terms of maybe what you're most interested in pursuing out there, geologically, for example? And also if you have any sort of thoughts from sort of what's happening on the ground there as far as A&D?

Good morning, this is Jamie. I'll address that one. As far as the Powder River Basin goes, as Jimmy touched on, we're excited to have that one. We're fully implementing those assets and evaluating under the different sensitivities and market prices where those things will go. Again, getting that cash flow in-house was a big hurdle for us and happy that's done. Now we're going to start looking at the AFEs that come in and what we want to do with those, so more to follow on the DJ, Powder River as well.

Great. Obviously, just to add on to that, I would say, you know, we announced that Powder River Basin acquisition right around when the Iran war was starting. So underwritten at Strip Prices in the low $60s going into the $50s. So it's a little soon to do a full look-back analysis, but as we do that and running the Higher Strip, I mean that just looks like a very good deal at these prices and starting to see AFEs on that asset as we underwrite. So that acquisition is going as planned, given we're only 3 to 4 months in. But I think in general, we're targeting basins where we have the information. So again, Williston, Powder River, DJ, we look everywhere. We want the exposure to other basins, but just feel a little more likely to win larger deals in the basin where we have assets currently.

Sure, absolutely. And I think, I don't know actually if you've talked much about the operator profile of the assets you acquired there. Is it essentially the handful of larger guys who are active out there or more maybe smaller under the radar, not real familiar about what's going on out there on the private side?

Yes, no, this is Jimmy. That package was definitely advantaged by primarily being operated by a couple of the bigger operators there, namely EOG and Continental. So very happy to be aligned with them and have them as partner operators on that asset. That's one of the reasons we liked it so much.

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Jamie Benard for closing comments.

Well, thanks everyone for joining today. I just want to leave you with the same message we started with. Vitesse's strategy hasn't changed. We're going to remain committed to our core priorities, returning capital to stockholders through our durable dividend, disciplined capital allocation, identifying and pursuing accretive growth opportunities, and maintaining a strong and conservative balance sheet. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Ben Messier directly. We look forward to connecting with you on an upcoming investor event, including EnerCom Denver and the Midwest IDEAS Conference later this month, or during our next quarterly earnings call.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.