A Deeper Look Heckmann Corporation (HEK)’s Results: Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR), ConocoPhillips (COP)

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Heckmann A Bear Stock?Environmental solutions provider, Heckmann Corporation (NYSE:HEK) reported its fourth-quarter and full-year results. This past year has been a truly transformative one for the company and the fourth quarter marked its culmination as Heckmann Corporation (NYSE:HEK) closed its acquisition of Power Fuels. Despite some headwinds in the quarter the company really cleaned up.

Going into the report, analysts had expected the company to lose $0.07 a share for the full year, with a consensus loss of $0.04 in the fourth quarter. Instead, the company delivered $0.03 of earnings in the fourth quarter which enabled it to eke out full-year earnings of $0.02 a share. This beat was enough to send the company’s shares up more than 10% today.

Revenue for the quarter hit $113.2 million, which is amazing when you consider that the company delivered just $156.8 million in revenue in all of 2011. This year revenue was affected by the aforementioned Power Fuels acquisition as well as the acquisition of Thermo Fluids earlier in the year. When you add it all up, the company delivered total revenue of $352 million for the full year.

This growth was despite the fact that the company’s business was affected by a fourth-quarter slowdown in drilling activity. The company was able to maneuver past this by curtailing capital expenditures to deliver a profit. The other contributing factor behind the earnings beat is that the Power Fuels business really outperformed expectations in the quarter. The company’s operations, which were solely focused on the Bakken, really benefited from the growth in oil production coming from the region.

Those Bakken production numbers have been truly outstanding with the future looking even brighter. For example, Bakken focused driller Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp (USA) (NYSE:KOG) saw its oil and gas sales jump 267% last year while its proved reserves grew by 138%. The company sees 950 future drilling locations among its Bakken acres. Meanwhile, top Bakken producer Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE:CLR) saw its production grow 58% year over year while its reserves jumped 54% year over year. These are truly breathtaking numbers especially when you consider that a larger oil and gas company with international operations like ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) only expects to grow its production by 3%-5% each year.

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