TDW: Earnings Preannouncement

Tidewater (NYSE: TDW) is not scheduled to announce the company's results for fiscal 2011's first quarter, which ended on 30 June 2010, until 5 August.

However, the company today "preannounced" partial and preliminary results for the June quarter.  Tidewater estimates diluted earnings will be between $0.75 and $0.80 per share.  The company noted that the Wall Street consensus estimate was $0.95 per share at the time of the preannouncement.

In our "look-ahead" for Tidewater's June 2010 quarter, posted 20 June 2010, we forecast earnings of $0.84 per share.  This is $0.04 above the high end of the newly announced range.

Tidewater now estimates vessel revenue of approximately $262 million in the June quarter.  Our $266 million target for the company's total revenue shouldn't be too far off because Tidewater typically reports a modest amount of "other marine revenues" in addition to vessel revenue.

The company's estimate for vessel operating costs remains at $155 million.

Since preannounced Revenue and operating cost figures are generally consistent with our earlier targets, it appears general and administrative costs might have exceeded our estimate or that gains on asset dispositions might have been lower.  It's also possible that currency exchange fluctuations had a negative effect on the results.

We will have to wait until 5 August to learn the specifics.




Full disclosure: Long TDW at time of writing.