NYSE:CRGY Crescent Energy Q2 2025 Earnings Report $9.93 +0.55 (+5.88%) Closing price 08/22/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$9.78 -0.15 (-1.53%) As of 08/22/2025 07:48 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Crescent Energy EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.43Consensus EPS $0.23Beat/MissBeat by +$0.20One Year Ago EPSN/ACrescent Energy Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$897.98 millionExpected Revenue$868.34 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$29.65 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ACrescent Energy Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2025Date8/4/2025TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateTuesday, August 5, 2025Conference Call Time11:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsCrescent Energy's Q3 2025 earnings is scheduled for Monday, November 3, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 11:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Crescent Energy Q2 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 5, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Exceptional Q2 results: Crescent posted record production of 263 kboe/d, generated $171 M in free cash flow and exceeded all key metrics. Positive Sentiment: Raised 2025 outlook by reaffirming production guidance while cutting capital spending and cash tax expectations, adding roughly $100 M of incremental free cash flow. Positive Sentiment: Operational excellence delivered ~15% lower drilling and completion costs in the Eagle Ford and Uinta, driving stronger capital efficiency across the asset base. Positive Sentiment: Strengthened balance sheet with $200 M of debt repayments, $1 B of liquidity, new hedge positions, and opportunistic buybacks of $28 M at a ~12% discount plus a 7% annualized yield dividend. Positive Sentiment: Accretive M&A activity with mineral asset acquisitions targeting >2× MOIC and $110 M of noncore divestitures to simplify the portfolio and enhance returns. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallCrescent Energy Q2 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Greetings, and welcome to the Crescent Energy Q2 twenty twenty five Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Reed Gallagher, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:00:27Good morning, and thank you for joining Crescent's Second Quarter twenty twenty five Conference Call. Today's prepared remarks will come from our CEO, David Rockacharley and our CFO, Randy Kendall. Our Executive Vice President of Investments, Clay Wren, will also be available during Q and A. Today's call may contain projections and other forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including commodity price volatility, global geopolitical conflict, our business strategies and other factors that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in these statements and our other disclosures. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:01:01We have no obligation to update any forward looking statements after today's call. In addition, today's discussion may include disclosure regarding 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 press release available on the Investors section on our website. With that, I will hand it over to David. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:01:22Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Yesterday, Crescent posted financial and operating results for the second quarter. In summary, it was an exceptional quarter of continued execution for our business. As always, I would like to begin with a few key points that I hope you take away from this call. First, Crescent continues to deliver. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:01:45This quarter, we once again posted strong free cash flow and overall performance. Our excellent results exceeded expectations on all key metrics, and we are enhancing our outlook for the full year. Second, we are driving long term value through operational excellence. Our strong free cash flow generation is the result of impressive operational execution with record production alongside continued capital efficiency gains and cost savings across our asset base. And finally, we are making the most of this market environment, and we see huge opportunity ahead for Crescent. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:02:25We operate in a cyclical industry and see volatility as opportunity. We intentionally built a lower decline and less capital intensive business with commodity flexibility and a consistent hedge program to generate more durable free cash flow than our peers. Our business model allows us to see opportunity and be proactive in periods of dislocation like we are seeing today. Since our last call, we've successfully navigated the market to both acquire assets, including our own stock and divest assets, all at compelling valuations. We have continued to proactively risk manage the business, strengthening the balance sheet with debt repayment, maturity extensions and additions to our hedge position. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:03:16And we continue to simplify the positioning of Crescent stock with our transition to a single share class. We've also been driving operational savings through excellent execution across both acquisition integration and our base business. We built this company to succeed through the inevitable cycles of our industry, and our performance this quarter demonstrates just that. Following those quick highlights, I will now discuss our results in a bit more detail. We saw record production of 263,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day with 108,000 barrels of oil per day and generated approximately $171,000,000 of free cash flow for the quarter, all well above Wall Street expectations. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:04:04Our significant outperformance was driven by capital efficiencies, strong well performance and a modest acceleration of activity. Our talented team continues to drive operational savings with increased efficiency of both drilling and completions, improving well costs by approximately 15% in both the Eagle Ford and Uinta basins since last year. With these savings, we are enhancing our outlook for the year, reaffirming production expectations alongside a reduction in capital and lower cash tax expectations, driving increased free cash flow. Our operating plan for the year remains focused on maximizing free cash flow and returns on capital invested. In the Eagle Ford, we are delivering on the flexible capital program that we highlighted in our initial 2025 guidance, taking advantage of relative commodity pricing with gas focused activity in the back half of the year. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:05:08In Utah, we are maintaining our prudent approach to capturing the significant long term resource opportunity we own. The industry remains active with widespread positive results across the basin. Our joint venture in the Northeast portion of our position continues to show extremely strong performance. We were not focused historically in this area, and the impressive results are giving us an exciting reason to remain patient and methodical as we continue to optimize our long term development plan. As we look beyond our base business for attractive investment opportunities, the A and D market was quieter in the second quarter with continued volatility in commodity pricing. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:05:53However, our team has been able to find pockets of compelling value and execute accretive transactions, including both acquisitions and divestitures. First, we acquired attractive minerals assets that complement our existing portfolio focused in Texas and The Rockies. We expect the acquisition to generate returns in excess of our 2x MOIC target and be accretive to free cash flow. The assets fit seamlessly into our existing minerals portfolio, which pro form a contributes roughly $100,000,000 of annual cash flow to our overall business. On the other side of the A and B market, we closed another divestiture of non operated assets. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:06:41This accretive divestiture is a part of our ongoing plan to streamline the business and maximize the value of noncore assets in our portfolio. And it brings our year to date divestiture total to roughly $110,000,000 I'm consistently impressed with the focus, drive and creativity that our team brings to finding compelling value opportunities, whether that be in the A and D market or within our own business. This quarter has been a great example of what execution means to us. It means delivering free cash flow. It means delivering strong and consistent operations. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:07:23It means delivering returns through accretive M and A. But most of all, it means that everyone on our team is always ready, looking for any opportunity to deliver further value for Crescent. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brandi to provide more detail on the quarter. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:07:42Thanks, David. Crescent had impressive results for the quarter with approximately $514,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA, dollars $265,000,000 of capital expenditures and approximately $171,000,000 in levered free cash flow. These results build on our strong track record of consistent and significant free cash flow generation, supported by our advantaged decline rate, lower relative capital intensity, returns focused reinvestment and consistent hedge strategy. Over the last five years, we have generated cumulative free cash flow roughly equal to our current market cap, and we continue to trade at a compelling discount on free cash flow metrics today. As David mentioned, we have capitalized on the current market volatility a number of ways since the first quarter, starting with a meaningful step in our evolution as a public company with elimination of our Up C structure in early April and the transition to a single class of common shares, reducing complexity and making our stock easier to own. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:08:44With the significant dislocation early in the quarter, we repurchased approximately $28,000,000 worth of stock at a weighted average price of $7.88 roughly 12% below our current share price. Our buyback program is an opportunistic tool for us to capitalize on periods of volatility, and we evaluate opportunities to acquire our own stock the same way we evaluate acquisition opportunities. In addition to our repurchase activity, we announced another dividend of zero one two dollars per share, which altogether equates to an attractive 7% annualized yield. We took steps to further strengthen our balance sheet using cash flow to pay down approximately $200,000,000 of debt this quarter, increasing liquidity to $1,000,000,000.07 $5 We also successfully refinanced a portion of our long term debt to strengthen our maturity time line even further relative to our peers. On top of all that, we were able to add some opportunistic oil hedges to our 2026 portfolio at recent highs. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:09:40With that, I'll turn the call back over to David for closing remarks. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:09:44Thanks, Brandi. Before we wrap up, I want to reiterate our key messages for investors. First, we continue to deliver. This quarter, all key metrics exceeded expectations. We are a cash flow focused company, and we generated $171,000,000 of free cash flow. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:10:04And with our strong results, we have enhanced our outlook for the year. Second, we are driving long term value through operational excellence. Our team continues to outperform. Over many years and many transactions, we have proven our successful acquisition and integration capabilities, and we don't stop there. We are relentlessly focused on finding the gold buried within our own business to increase free cash flow and returns for our investors. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:10:34Simply put, we acquire assets and we make them better. And finally, we are making the most of this market environment, and we are always prepared to capitalize on any opportunity ahead of us. Our business model allows us to see opportunity and be proactive in periods of dislocation like we are seeing today, and this quarter's performance is a perfect example of our strategy in action. With that, we'll open it up for Q and A. Operator? Operator00:11:05Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. The first question is from John Freeman from Raymond James. Please go ahead. John FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James Financial00:11:36Thanks. Good morning. We we continue to see the nice efficiency gains on the the D and C per foot falling, you know, another 6% just from from one q levels, and it looks like most of that improvement was driven by about a 10% improvement on the completion side in terms of just the amount of fluids a day that are being pumped. Just maybe if you all could elaborate on that, if there was some specific change that you all made on the completion side that would have driven that big of an improvement from what you all had just put off in 1Q? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:12:09Hey, John, it's David. Thanks for the question. I would say, quite simply, it's just more execution of what we would call best practices. And in particular, we would highlight that we're still bringing simul frac in bigger and bigger ways to our completion operations. John FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James Financial00:12:31Got it. And then I guess I was just gonna say if we then looking at the Uinta, those those well results that you're pointing out on on slide 11, obviously, pretty meaningful outperformance. And, you did mention that's an area that you previously weren't really kind of looking at. Does what you all are seeing on those wells, I get it, it's still early days, but on those that size of an outperformance, does it sort of maybe change the way you all think about maybe capital allocation decisions within the basin going forward? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:13:04Yes, great question. Just as a quick reminder, you'll recall that we acquired that asset really based purely on PDP value. Early days, we were in a pretty low risk mode drilling really just one formation. What we've seen in the last three plus years is a significant expansion and economic proving up of multiple formations in that area. So long story short, we're very excited about the resource potential. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:13:38We don't have any need to move too quickly out here. And yes, we're really pleased with what I would call an expansion across our acreage of proven economic inventory. So I think you'll see us continue to allocate capital here. And we just want to do it in the right way, given the significant stacked resource that's now been proven up over the last multiple years that we would not have gone after the day we acquired the asset. John FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James Financial00:14:05Thanks. Appreciate it. Nice quarter. Operator00:14:10The next question is from Michael Furrow from Pickering Energy Partners. Michael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy Partners00:14:17Congrats on the quarter. Just hoping to get a little more color on recent M and A activity during the quarter with the acquisition and divestiture. Minerals portfolio has grown to be a bit quite sizable, doing $100,000,000 in anticipated EBITDA. I think that we can all agree that Crescent is really not seeing that value reflected in the share price today and monetization of that asset would likely be the quickest way to kind of recognize that value. So our question is, what's the justification to add to the minerals portfolio here? Michael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy Partners00:14:51And what are you guys seeing internally that might not have been as clear to us on the outside looking in particularly on that asset package? Clay RyndEVP - Investments at Crescent Energy Co00:14:59Hey, it's Clay. Listen, first, glad you're asking about the minerals portfolio because I agree with you, it's growing to be a decent sized business. For us, just to hit the acquisition specifically, super consistent with the strategy, right? Hits the return metrics that we all focus on, as you know, right? We've been building this minerals portfolio over a long time. Clay RyndEVP - Investments at Crescent Energy Co00:15:23So it's a part of the market we're active in, we understand. And when we see value drive by, we thought it made sense to grab it super accretive for the business in line with kind of how we view the world, highly cash flow accretive. So I think as we thought that acquisition, especially into a volatile market where we thought we could grab great value, did it. Bigger picture, look, certainly we recognize that if you stop time today and said, are we getting the value for that business today? I don't think we are. Clay RyndEVP - Investments at Crescent Energy Co00:15:54And so we're certainly focused on how do we get the best long term value for our investors around that business. I think there's multiple paths to do that, but something we talk about a lot and are focused on. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:16:10Just like to get a follow-up here on the balance sheet, kind of move a little different direction. Gross debt is still a little elevated relative to the current market cap, but it's really moving in the right direction. Leverage is quite manageable, really on a path to that one times target. I'd argue that the balance sheet is even stronger than those metrics coming to look at the weighted average maturity and the coupon rate. To us, it seems like the company is in a pretty strong position to both further reduce debt and repurchase shares. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:16:41So our question is, how is the company doing now continuing to buy back stock at the current valuation? How is that being balanced with your longer term leverage targets? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:16:51Michael, it's Brandy. Good question. So no change fundamentally as to how we think about capital allocation priorities remain the balance sheet and the fixed dividend. And then after that, it's all about, right, what's the best return on the capital that we can invest, whether that we're buying our stock, it's M and A or we're drilling wells. I think Q2 and how we allocate the capital is probably a good framework to think about going forward. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:17:17So of the free cash flow that we generated, roughly 80% went to the balance sheet. So you saw us repay $200,000,000 of debt this quarter, and the remaining 20% went back to our equity investors through the fixed dividend and the buyback. So again, I think that's an okay ZIP code to think about how we balance the two going forward. Michael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy Partners00:17:44That's great. Thank you. I'll turn it back. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:17:46Thank you. Operator00:17:49The next question is from Charles Meade from Johnson Rice and Co. Please go ahead. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:17:54Yes. Good morning, David, you and your whole team there. Wondered if David, in your prepared remarks, you used the word dislocation to talk about the A and D market right now. And I'm wondering if you could elaborate what you're seeing to lead you to use that, that were dislocation. And if you care to offer a guess on how that dislocation might resolve going forward? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:18:22Yeah. So great question. First, I'll start by saying that there's definitely what I'll call levels of dislocation, and it it's certainly functioning. So maybe the simplest explanation I can give you for our use of that word, despite the fact that we got a few things done is, as you know, we are heavily focused in our core area of the Eagle Ford, where we're a top three producer of oil and gas and have been a very active acquirer. We look at everything in the A and D market, but including the highly, what I would call transactable area in the Eagle Ford. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:19:03And what we've seen so far this year was a fairly active market early on of assets available for sale. And the punch line is 75% or more of the asset sale processes we saw in the Eagle Ford were pulled and never transacted as a result of volatility that we saw in Q2. So our view is the market's functioning right now, and we're able to get some things done, but there's just a lot out there in our view that's still sitting on the sidelines. And so we like it when we get a chance to look at lots of things and the market environment starts to allow people to sort out where they want to focus their capital and when and how they want to transact. So I think we're well prepared to succeed in that type of environment. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:19:52Got it. Got it. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:19:53Thank you for that. And then to go back to the earlier question about those having those tantalizing results in the eastern side of your Uinta position, again recognizing it's early days, but is do you guys have any kind of leading hypotheses on why you're seeing such a good production response versus your view? Is it perhaps deeper and higher pressure? Is it a more intensive completion or a different completion design? Or you just still trying to figure it out? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:20:35Yes. David, again. I'd say long story short is that we played it really safe early on. As I mentioned earlier, we acquired the assets for PDP value. And so we were really focused on just making sure we got what we paid for from a cash flow perspective. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:20:50And the industry has continued to evolve significantly. So I think there's nothing fundamentally surprising. In other words, the reservoirs are performing very well. And yes, we had a lack of certainty around what that might look like before we allocated some capital there. But fundamentally, much like a lot of the success across the basin, I think we're very pleased and there's nothing fancy going on here. It's just good old fashioned performance of strong reservoirs. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:21:24Got it. Thank you, The Operator00:21:29next question is from Oliver Huang from TPH and Co. Please go ahead. Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&Co00:21:35Good morning, David, Brandy, Clay, and thanks for taking the questions. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:21:41Wanted to follow-up on Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&Co00:21:44the earlier question around efficiencies and the lower D and C. Was there a deflation or a lower service cost component? Or did that have anything to do with where activity occurred during the quarter? Or was it just purely efficiency cycle time driven? And also, are there certain areas where you all see further levers to pull costs down lower over the next year or so, whether from a cash OpEx or D and C perspective? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:22:11Yes, Oliver, it's Brandy. I'll start. So the driver for reducing our capital guide by 3% is all drilling and completion efficiencies. I would say from a kind of inflation deflation standpoint, as we sit here today and look out for the rest of the year, I would say not seeing a ton with respect to service cost deflation. We obviously were the beneficiaries of significant deflation throughout 2024. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:22:42And then just obviously and the obvious tariff overlay is going to be slightly inflationary. So we'd expect E and C costs to creep up maybe 10 a foot in the back part of the year, specifically due to deflation, but that's still well within our updated capital guidance. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:23:07Okay. Perfect. That's And Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&Co00:23:11maybe just for a second question, just on the efficiencies that you all have seen. Is there any thought to potential building of DUCs if they were to kind of hold true and lead to running ahead of schedule heading into year end? Or would the decision point be to slow down a bit or even pull forward some activity into 2025? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:23:33Yes. Hey, it's David. I think we are very good at managing the business through cycles and planning for the longer term. So long story short, I think our outlook for the year remains the same. I wouldn't expect us to be doing anything different absent large moves in commodity prices that impact returns. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:23:56Maybe also I'll add, we obviously reaffirmed our full year production guidance on less capital. If we add up the capital and the tax savings, that equates to roughly $100,000,000 of incremental free cash flow for the business this year. And especially in a period of market volatility, we think retaining that $100,000,000 for the benefit of our shareholders is a better use of that extra cash flow than continue to put it into the ground. Operator00:24:29The next question is from John Abbott from Wolfe Research. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:24:42First question is on capital allocation. Mean this year, are pivoting you are allocating more capital towards natural gas. I mean you are still expected to grow gas volumes in the second half of the year. You do have flexibility in the Eagle Ford to pivot. I guess my question is, at this point, I mean, as you sort of think about that flexibility, are you pretty much locked in, in terms of activity for the remainder of this year if we continue to see robust production for The U. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:25:14S. For natural gas that could lower pricing? Do you have the ability to flex? And then as you sort of look to 2026, how are thinking about the allocation of activity between oil and gas? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:25:30John, it's David here. A quick answer on that is, yes, think we have not only the flexibility in the asset base, as you said, we've also got the ability a proven ability to ship that capital relatively quickly as we did earlier this year. But I would say in terms of timing, I think the most important thing we highlight is we can change the allocation of capital in the down market pretty quickly. So we feel like we have a lot of control over our capital. And the flexibility side, while highly flexible, I'd go back to what we talked about earlier in the year. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:26:12At the margin quickly, it tends to be about 20% of the program that we can move pretty quickly. So I'd maybe give you those two guideposts. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:26:27Appreciate And then for our second question, Randy, this one is for you. You are a beneficiary of the big one beautiful bill. I mean, you know your cash taxes this year, as you just discussed, you're going to get a benefit from this year. And then I guess, over the next several years, you're probably not going to be paying much in the way of cash taxes. I guess the real question is, how do you think about your ability to offset cash taxes post 2027 when you kind of sort of look at strip pricing? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:26:58Hey, John, it's Brandi. Good question. As you mentioned, we are a beneficiary of updated tax legislation similar to other oil and gas companies. As we look at kind of the next five years of expected cash tax payments, kind of pre legislation and post legislation, we think that's roughly two fifty million dollars of cash tax savings, so roughly $1 per share. Again, over the next couple of years, right, assuming current commodity prices and a kind of a maintenance level of capital program, expect federal taxes to essentially be zero. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:27:45Appreciate it. Thank you very much for taking our questions. Operator00:27:50Next question is from Tim Rezvan from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:27:57Good morning, folks, and thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to sort of follow-up on prior comments on the balance sheet. In talking with you all last night, we sensed confidence on hitting or exceeding your asset sale target. It comes on top of pretty strong free cash flow. But when we see leverage in this commodity price environment, we simply don't see a lot of organic deleveraging even if we were to assume several 100,000,000 of asset sales that didn't have earnings. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:28:25So can you talk about how realistic that one times leverage target is over the next one to two years? And maybe kind of looking at it a different way, what's the appropriate debt balance that a company your size should have? Thanks. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:28:44Tim, thanks for the question. It's David. As you know, our stated framework is to operate between one and one point five times. And as you heard earlier from Brandy and in our released results as well, we're obviously no change. We're focused on managing the business through the cycle and taking care of the capital structure and making sure we've got a strong balance sheet. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:29:13So I think you'll continue to see us pay down debt out of free cash flow. We're at the higher end of our range now. Think that's consistent with what we've said. And to your point, we do generate a lot of free cash flow and we're also well hedged with long term debt. So I think we've got a very strong path over time to reducing debt, but also, again, I think we've proven we'll stay within our leverage targets. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:29:46Maybe on a little more specific thoughts around how we see the appropriate way to leverage companies in the oil and gas sector. I'll let Randy cover this, but we're well aligned as a company strategically on how we think about asset base and leverage. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:30:06Yes, I'll add. So as Dave mentioned, right, we generate a lot of cash. We're well hedged. We have a less capital intensive business, meaning historically, we've reinvested 40% to 50% of our cash flows. I do think inherently our business has an ability to delever over time, both on an absolute basis, but then also with respect to an overall leverage metric. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:30:33We have roughly $250,000,000 drawn on the RBL today. We would expect that to be repaid out of cash flow as we move towards the end of the year. And then the only maturity that exists before 2032 would be the remaining 500,000,000 of our 2028 notes. As we look forward, again, assuming of we're in a similar commodity price environment, we can kind of pay those off again without a cash flow. So as we move through the end of this year and into next year, we could be looking at some long term debt that matures between 2032 and 02/1934. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:31:10So again, feel like we're in a really great spot and really within the guidelines of how we've operated the business for the last twelve years. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:31:22Okay. That's helpful context. And I just wanted to tie that to sort of your comments on being countercyclical on the A and D front. I appreciated the comments on the Eagle Ford. So is it safe to say you will remain nimble and that we should think about guidepost as leverage on structure for a deal and that you're comfortable with net debt going up if something is leverage neutral? Is that the right way to think about opportunities? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:31:52Yes. Think for us, right, from an A and D perspective, we want to earn two times our money or more. We're focused on accretion, and we want to make sure the pro form a business is really strong. And for us, we're comfortable going up to 1.5 times. So that's how we evaluate M and A. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:32:10Okay. Thank you. Operator00:32:14The next question is from Michael Scialla from Stephens Inc. Please go ahead. Michael SciallaAnalyst at Stephens Inc00:32:20Hi, good morning. Wanted to ask this kind of high level, even after you've simplified the structure here with the elimination of the FC, your stock is still valued at about a one turn discount, at least to our mid cap peer group. I guess what do you see as holding the stock back? Anything in particular that you plan to focus on going forward? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:32:43Yes, think look, it's our job to demonstrate to people how good this business is. We're just going to keep doing it. I think this quarter is a great example, free cash flow, great returns and risk management and a great operating businesses is what we're building here. So I think it's, we're not going to make it harder than that. We just got to keep showing up. Michael SciallaAnalyst at Stephens Inc00:33:05Understood. I wanted to ask on Uinta, the decision to pause drilling there when it looks like you have some really good results. I guess, how do the returns between UNT and Eagle Ford compare? And if they are similar, can you just discuss the reason for keeping that asset kind of on hold here for a little bit? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:33:28Yes. Hey, it's David. The short answer is, I think we've talked about before the oil weighted portfolio in the company in terms of our ability to allocate capital is similar across the Eagle Ford and the Uinta. But we've gotten significantly more, what I'll call stacked resource in the Uinta and we've got a larger acreage position with less development across it. So it's relatively straightforward to us to allocate capital between the two areas on the oil side. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:34:03We'll continue to do that. And all you're seeing is when we get great results in an area where we have not been as focused, we're going to stop and evaluate that and make sure we maximize the future development there. So we're really excited about it. We've got great resource on the oil side in both the Eagle Ford and Newinda, and I think you'll continue to see us allocate capital effectively across those two basins in some way. Operator00:34:33There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to David Rock Charley, CEO, for closing comments. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:34:46Great. Thank you all again. As we said, we're really pleased with how the business is performing, and we're going to continue to do that and get back to work and look forward to talking to you next quarter. Operator00:34:59This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesDavid RockecharlieCEO & DirectorBrandi KendallBoard Member & CFOClay RyndEVP - InvestmentsAnalystsReid GallagherDirector at KKRJohn FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James FinancialMichael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy PartnersCharles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&CoJohn AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLCTim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital MarketsMichael SciallaAnalyst at Stephens IncPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Crescent Energy Earnings HeadlinesExclusive: Crescent Energy nears deal for US shale peer Vital Energy, sources sayAugust 22 at 5:37 PM | reuters.com4 Analysts Assess Crescent Energy: What You Need To KnowAugust 22 at 1:12 PM | benzinga.com“Sell Nvidia before earnings”Eric Fry just went live with one of his most controversial calls yet: “Sell Nvidia.” While Wall Street has been chasing the AI giant, Eric says its biggest customers are now its biggest competitors — and that could spell trouble ahead. Instead, he’s urging investors to consider a little-known hardware company that’s already starting to take off. In fact, while Nvidia has slipped over the past 30 days, this “off-the-radar” stock is up 18% — and Eric believes the run is just beginning. | InvestorPlace (Ad)Siebert Williams Shank & Co Reiterates ‘Buy’ Rating on Crescent Energy Company (CRGY)August 19, 2025 | insidermonkey.comHead to Head Contrast: Crescent Energy (NYSE:CRGY) vs. Ener-Core (OTCMKTS:ENCR)August 18, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comWells Fargo Keeps Their Buy Rating on Crescent Energy Company Class A (CRGY)August 11, 2025 | theglobeandmail.comSee More Crescent Energy Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Crescent Energy? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Crescent Energy and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Crescent EnergyCrescent Energy (NYSE:CRGY) acquires, develops, and produces crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) reserves. Its portfolio of assets comprises mid-cycle unconventional and conventional assets in the Eagle Ford and Uinta Basins. It also owns and operates various midstream assets, which provide services to customers. The company is based in Houston, Texas.View Crescent Energy ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles After Earnings Miss, Walmart Is Still a Top Consumer Staples PlayRoyal Caribbean Earnings Beat Fuels Strong 2025 OutlookDLocal Stock Soars 43% After Earnings Beat and Raised GuidanceGreen Dot's 30% Rally: Turnaround Takes Off on Explosive EarningsElbit Systems Jumps on Record Earnings and a $1.6B ContractBrinker Serves Up Earnings Beat, Sidesteps Cost PressuresWhy BigBear.ai Stock's Dip on Earnings Can Be an Opportunity Upcoming Earnings PDD (8/25/2025)BHP Group (8/25/2025)Bank Of Montreal (8/26/2025)Bank of Nova Scotia (8/26/2025)CrowdStrike (8/27/2025)NVIDIA (8/27/2025)Royal Bank Of Canada (8/27/2025)Snowflake (8/27/2025)Autodesk (8/28/2025)Marvell Technology (8/28/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Greetings, and welcome to the Crescent Energy Q2 twenty twenty five Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Reed Gallagher, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:00:27Good morning, and thank you for joining Crescent's Second Quarter twenty twenty five Conference Call. Today's prepared remarks will come from our CEO, David Rockacharley and our CFO, Randy Kendall. Our Executive Vice President of Investments, Clay Wren, will also be available during Q and A. Today's call may contain projections and other forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including commodity price volatility, global geopolitical conflict, our business strategies and other factors that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in these statements and our other disclosures. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:01:01We have no obligation to update any forward looking statements after today's call. In addition, today's discussion may include disclosure regarding 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 press release available on the Investors section on our website. With that, I will hand it over to David. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:01:22Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Yesterday, Crescent posted financial and operating results for the second quarter. In summary, it was an exceptional quarter of continued execution for our business. As always, I would like to begin with a few key points that I hope you take away from this call. First, Crescent continues to deliver. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:01:45This quarter, we once again posted strong free cash flow and overall performance. Our excellent results exceeded expectations on all key metrics, and we are enhancing our outlook for the full year. Second, we are driving long term value through operational excellence. Our strong free cash flow generation is the result of impressive operational execution with record production alongside continued capital efficiency gains and cost savings across our asset base. And finally, we are making the most of this market environment, and we see huge opportunity ahead for Crescent. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:02:25We operate in a cyclical industry and see volatility as opportunity. We intentionally built a lower decline and less capital intensive business with commodity flexibility and a consistent hedge program to generate more durable free cash flow than our peers. Our business model allows us to see opportunity and be proactive in periods of dislocation like we are seeing today. Since our last call, we've successfully navigated the market to both acquire assets, including our own stock and divest assets, all at compelling valuations. We have continued to proactively risk manage the business, strengthening the balance sheet with debt repayment, maturity extensions and additions to our hedge position. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:03:16And we continue to simplify the positioning of Crescent stock with our transition to a single share class. We've also been driving operational savings through excellent execution across both acquisition integration and our base business. We built this company to succeed through the inevitable cycles of our industry, and our performance this quarter demonstrates just that. Following those quick highlights, I will now discuss our results in a bit more detail. We saw record production of 263,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day with 108,000 barrels of oil per day and generated approximately $171,000,000 of free cash flow for the quarter, all well above Wall Street expectations. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:04:04Our significant outperformance was driven by capital efficiencies, strong well performance and a modest acceleration of activity. Our talented team continues to drive operational savings with increased efficiency of both drilling and completions, improving well costs by approximately 15% in both the Eagle Ford and Uinta basins since last year. With these savings, we are enhancing our outlook for the year, reaffirming production expectations alongside a reduction in capital and lower cash tax expectations, driving increased free cash flow. Our operating plan for the year remains focused on maximizing free cash flow and returns on capital invested. In the Eagle Ford, we are delivering on the flexible capital program that we highlighted in our initial 2025 guidance, taking advantage of relative commodity pricing with gas focused activity in the back half of the year. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:05:08In Utah, we are maintaining our prudent approach to capturing the significant long term resource opportunity we own. The industry remains active with widespread positive results across the basin. Our joint venture in the Northeast portion of our position continues to show extremely strong performance. We were not focused historically in this area, and the impressive results are giving us an exciting reason to remain patient and methodical as we continue to optimize our long term development plan. As we look beyond our base business for attractive investment opportunities, the A and D market was quieter in the second quarter with continued volatility in commodity pricing. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:05:53However, our team has been able to find pockets of compelling value and execute accretive transactions, including both acquisitions and divestitures. First, we acquired attractive minerals assets that complement our existing portfolio focused in Texas and The Rockies. We expect the acquisition to generate returns in excess of our 2x MOIC target and be accretive to free cash flow. The assets fit seamlessly into our existing minerals portfolio, which pro form a contributes roughly $100,000,000 of annual cash flow to our overall business. On the other side of the A and B market, we closed another divestiture of non operated assets. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:06:41This accretive divestiture is a part of our ongoing plan to streamline the business and maximize the value of noncore assets in our portfolio. And it brings our year to date divestiture total to roughly $110,000,000 I'm consistently impressed with the focus, drive and creativity that our team brings to finding compelling value opportunities, whether that be in the A and D market or within our own business. This quarter has been a great example of what execution means to us. It means delivering free cash flow. It means delivering strong and consistent operations. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:07:23It means delivering returns through accretive M and A. But most of all, it means that everyone on our team is always ready, looking for any opportunity to deliver further value for Crescent. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brandi to provide more detail on the quarter. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:07:42Thanks, David. Crescent had impressive results for the quarter with approximately $514,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA, dollars $265,000,000 of capital expenditures and approximately $171,000,000 in levered free cash flow. These results build on our strong track record of consistent and significant free cash flow generation, supported by our advantaged decline rate, lower relative capital intensity, returns focused reinvestment and consistent hedge strategy. Over the last five years, we have generated cumulative free cash flow roughly equal to our current market cap, and we continue to trade at a compelling discount on free cash flow metrics today. As David mentioned, we have capitalized on the current market volatility a number of ways since the first quarter, starting with a meaningful step in our evolution as a public company with elimination of our Up C structure in early April and the transition to a single class of common shares, reducing complexity and making our stock easier to own. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:08:44With the significant dislocation early in the quarter, we repurchased approximately $28,000,000 worth of stock at a weighted average price of $7.88 roughly 12% below our current share price. Our buyback program is an opportunistic tool for us to capitalize on periods of volatility, and we evaluate opportunities to acquire our own stock the same way we evaluate acquisition opportunities. In addition to our repurchase activity, we announced another dividend of zero one two dollars per share, which altogether equates to an attractive 7% annualized yield. We took steps to further strengthen our balance sheet using cash flow to pay down approximately $200,000,000 of debt this quarter, increasing liquidity to $1,000,000,000.07 $5 We also successfully refinanced a portion of our long term debt to strengthen our maturity time line even further relative to our peers. On top of all that, we were able to add some opportunistic oil hedges to our 2026 portfolio at recent highs. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:09:40With that, I'll turn the call back over to David for closing remarks. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:09:44Thanks, Brandi. Before we wrap up, I want to reiterate our key messages for investors. First, we continue to deliver. This quarter, all key metrics exceeded expectations. We are a cash flow focused company, and we generated $171,000,000 of free cash flow. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:10:04And with our strong results, we have enhanced our outlook for the year. Second, we are driving long term value through operational excellence. Our team continues to outperform. Over many years and many transactions, we have proven our successful acquisition and integration capabilities, and we don't stop there. We are relentlessly focused on finding the gold buried within our own business to increase free cash flow and returns for our investors. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:10:34Simply put, we acquire assets and we make them better. And finally, we are making the most of this market environment, and we are always prepared to capitalize on any opportunity ahead of us. Our business model allows us to see opportunity and be proactive in periods of dislocation like we are seeing today, and this quarter's performance is a perfect example of our strategy in action. With that, we'll open it up for Q and A. Operator? Operator00:11:05Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. The first question is from John Freeman from Raymond James. Please go ahead. John FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James Financial00:11:36Thanks. Good morning. We we continue to see the nice efficiency gains on the the D and C per foot falling, you know, another 6% just from from one q levels, and it looks like most of that improvement was driven by about a 10% improvement on the completion side in terms of just the amount of fluids a day that are being pumped. Just maybe if you all could elaborate on that, if there was some specific change that you all made on the completion side that would have driven that big of an improvement from what you all had just put off in 1Q? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:12:09Hey, John, it's David. Thanks for the question. I would say, quite simply, it's just more execution of what we would call best practices. And in particular, we would highlight that we're still bringing simul frac in bigger and bigger ways to our completion operations. John FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James Financial00:12:31Got it. And then I guess I was just gonna say if we then looking at the Uinta, those those well results that you're pointing out on on slide 11, obviously, pretty meaningful outperformance. And, you did mention that's an area that you previously weren't really kind of looking at. Does what you all are seeing on those wells, I get it, it's still early days, but on those that size of an outperformance, does it sort of maybe change the way you all think about maybe capital allocation decisions within the basin going forward? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:13:04Yes, great question. Just as a quick reminder, you'll recall that we acquired that asset really based purely on PDP value. Early days, we were in a pretty low risk mode drilling really just one formation. What we've seen in the last three plus years is a significant expansion and economic proving up of multiple formations in that area. So long story short, we're very excited about the resource potential. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:13:38We don't have any need to move too quickly out here. And yes, we're really pleased with what I would call an expansion across our acreage of proven economic inventory. So I think you'll see us continue to allocate capital here. And we just want to do it in the right way, given the significant stacked resource that's now been proven up over the last multiple years that we would not have gone after the day we acquired the asset. John FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James Financial00:14:05Thanks. Appreciate it. Nice quarter. Operator00:14:10The next question is from Michael Furrow from Pickering Energy Partners. Michael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy Partners00:14:17Congrats on the quarter. Just hoping to get a little more color on recent M and A activity during the quarter with the acquisition and divestiture. Minerals portfolio has grown to be a bit quite sizable, doing $100,000,000 in anticipated EBITDA. I think that we can all agree that Crescent is really not seeing that value reflected in the share price today and monetization of that asset would likely be the quickest way to kind of recognize that value. So our question is, what's the justification to add to the minerals portfolio here? Michael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy Partners00:14:51And what are you guys seeing internally that might not have been as clear to us on the outside looking in particularly on that asset package? Clay RyndEVP - Investments at Crescent Energy Co00:14:59Hey, it's Clay. Listen, first, glad you're asking about the minerals portfolio because I agree with you, it's growing to be a decent sized business. For us, just to hit the acquisition specifically, super consistent with the strategy, right? Hits the return metrics that we all focus on, as you know, right? We've been building this minerals portfolio over a long time. Clay RyndEVP - Investments at Crescent Energy Co00:15:23So it's a part of the market we're active in, we understand. And when we see value drive by, we thought it made sense to grab it super accretive for the business in line with kind of how we view the world, highly cash flow accretive. So I think as we thought that acquisition, especially into a volatile market where we thought we could grab great value, did it. Bigger picture, look, certainly we recognize that if you stop time today and said, are we getting the value for that business today? I don't think we are. Clay RyndEVP - Investments at Crescent Energy Co00:15:54And so we're certainly focused on how do we get the best long term value for our investors around that business. I think there's multiple paths to do that, but something we talk about a lot and are focused on. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:16:10Just like to get a follow-up here on the balance sheet, kind of move a little different direction. Gross debt is still a little elevated relative to the current market cap, but it's really moving in the right direction. Leverage is quite manageable, really on a path to that one times target. I'd argue that the balance sheet is even stronger than those metrics coming to look at the weighted average maturity and the coupon rate. To us, it seems like the company is in a pretty strong position to both further reduce debt and repurchase shares. Reid GallagherDirector at KKR00:16:41So our question is, how is the company doing now continuing to buy back stock at the current valuation? How is that being balanced with your longer term leverage targets? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:16:51Michael, it's Brandy. Good question. So no change fundamentally as to how we think about capital allocation priorities remain the balance sheet and the fixed dividend. And then after that, it's all about, right, what's the best return on the capital that we can invest, whether that we're buying our stock, it's M and A or we're drilling wells. I think Q2 and how we allocate the capital is probably a good framework to think about going forward. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:17:17So of the free cash flow that we generated, roughly 80% went to the balance sheet. So you saw us repay $200,000,000 of debt this quarter, and the remaining 20% went back to our equity investors through the fixed dividend and the buyback. So again, I think that's an okay ZIP code to think about how we balance the two going forward. Michael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy Partners00:17:44That's great. Thank you. I'll turn it back. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:17:46Thank you. Operator00:17:49The next question is from Charles Meade from Johnson Rice and Co. Please go ahead. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:17:54Yes. Good morning, David, you and your whole team there. Wondered if David, in your prepared remarks, you used the word dislocation to talk about the A and D market right now. And I'm wondering if you could elaborate what you're seeing to lead you to use that, that were dislocation. And if you care to offer a guess on how that dislocation might resolve going forward? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:18:22Yeah. So great question. First, I'll start by saying that there's definitely what I'll call levels of dislocation, and it it's certainly functioning. So maybe the simplest explanation I can give you for our use of that word, despite the fact that we got a few things done is, as you know, we are heavily focused in our core area of the Eagle Ford, where we're a top three producer of oil and gas and have been a very active acquirer. We look at everything in the A and D market, but including the highly, what I would call transactable area in the Eagle Ford. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:19:03And what we've seen so far this year was a fairly active market early on of assets available for sale. And the punch line is 75% or more of the asset sale processes we saw in the Eagle Ford were pulled and never transacted as a result of volatility that we saw in Q2. So our view is the market's functioning right now, and we're able to get some things done, but there's just a lot out there in our view that's still sitting on the sidelines. And so we like it when we get a chance to look at lots of things and the market environment starts to allow people to sort out where they want to focus their capital and when and how they want to transact. So I think we're well prepared to succeed in that type of environment. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:19:52Got it. Got it. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:19:53Thank you for that. And then to go back to the earlier question about those having those tantalizing results in the eastern side of your Uinta position, again recognizing it's early days, but is do you guys have any kind of leading hypotheses on why you're seeing such a good production response versus your view? Is it perhaps deeper and higher pressure? Is it a more intensive completion or a different completion design? Or you just still trying to figure it out? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:20:35Yes. David, again. I'd say long story short is that we played it really safe early on. As I mentioned earlier, we acquired the assets for PDP value. And so we were really focused on just making sure we got what we paid for from a cash flow perspective. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:20:50And the industry has continued to evolve significantly. So I think there's nothing fundamentally surprising. In other words, the reservoirs are performing very well. And yes, we had a lack of certainty around what that might look like before we allocated some capital there. But fundamentally, much like a lot of the success across the basin, I think we're very pleased and there's nothing fancy going on here. It's just good old fashioned performance of strong reservoirs. Charles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.00:21:24Got it. Thank you, The Operator00:21:29next question is from Oliver Huang from TPH and Co. Please go ahead. Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&Co00:21:35Good morning, David, Brandy, Clay, and thanks for taking the questions. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:21:41Wanted to follow-up on Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&Co00:21:44the earlier question around efficiencies and the lower D and C. Was there a deflation or a lower service cost component? Or did that have anything to do with where activity occurred during the quarter? Or was it just purely efficiency cycle time driven? And also, are there certain areas where you all see further levers to pull costs down lower over the next year or so, whether from a cash OpEx or D and C perspective? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:22:11Yes, Oliver, it's Brandy. I'll start. So the driver for reducing our capital guide by 3% is all drilling and completion efficiencies. I would say from a kind of inflation deflation standpoint, as we sit here today and look out for the rest of the year, I would say not seeing a ton with respect to service cost deflation. We obviously were the beneficiaries of significant deflation throughout 2024. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:22:42And then just obviously and the obvious tariff overlay is going to be slightly inflationary. So we'd expect E and C costs to creep up maybe 10 a foot in the back part of the year, specifically due to deflation, but that's still well within our updated capital guidance. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:23:07Okay. Perfect. That's And Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&Co00:23:11maybe just for a second question, just on the efficiencies that you all have seen. Is there any thought to potential building of DUCs if they were to kind of hold true and lead to running ahead of schedule heading into year end? Or would the decision point be to slow down a bit or even pull forward some activity into 2025? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:23:33Yes. Hey, it's David. I think we are very good at managing the business through cycles and planning for the longer term. So long story short, I think our outlook for the year remains the same. I wouldn't expect us to be doing anything different absent large moves in commodity prices that impact returns. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:23:56Maybe also I'll add, we obviously reaffirmed our full year production guidance on less capital. If we add up the capital and the tax savings, that equates to roughly $100,000,000 of incremental free cash flow for the business this year. And especially in a period of market volatility, we think retaining that $100,000,000 for the benefit of our shareholders is a better use of that extra cash flow than continue to put it into the ground. Operator00:24:29The next question is from John Abbott from Wolfe Research. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:24:42First question is on capital allocation. Mean this year, are pivoting you are allocating more capital towards natural gas. I mean you are still expected to grow gas volumes in the second half of the year. You do have flexibility in the Eagle Ford to pivot. I guess my question is, at this point, I mean, as you sort of think about that flexibility, are you pretty much locked in, in terms of activity for the remainder of this year if we continue to see robust production for The U. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:25:14S. For natural gas that could lower pricing? Do you have the ability to flex? And then as you sort of look to 2026, how are thinking about the allocation of activity between oil and gas? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:25:30John, it's David here. A quick answer on that is, yes, think we have not only the flexibility in the asset base, as you said, we've also got the ability a proven ability to ship that capital relatively quickly as we did earlier this year. But I would say in terms of timing, I think the most important thing we highlight is we can change the allocation of capital in the down market pretty quickly. So we feel like we have a lot of control over our capital. And the flexibility side, while highly flexible, I'd go back to what we talked about earlier in the year. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:26:12At the margin quickly, it tends to be about 20% of the program that we can move pretty quickly. So I'd maybe give you those two guideposts. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:26:27Appreciate And then for our second question, Randy, this one is for you. You are a beneficiary of the big one beautiful bill. I mean, you know your cash taxes this year, as you just discussed, you're going to get a benefit from this year. And then I guess, over the next several years, you're probably not going to be paying much in the way of cash taxes. I guess the real question is, how do you think about your ability to offset cash taxes post 2027 when you kind of sort of look at strip pricing? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:26:58Hey, John, it's Brandi. Good question. As you mentioned, we are a beneficiary of updated tax legislation similar to other oil and gas companies. As we look at kind of the next five years of expected cash tax payments, kind of pre legislation and post legislation, we think that's roughly two fifty million dollars of cash tax savings, so roughly $1 per share. Again, over the next couple of years, right, assuming current commodity prices and a kind of a maintenance level of capital program, expect federal taxes to essentially be zero. John AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLC00:27:45Appreciate it. Thank you very much for taking our questions. Operator00:27:50Next question is from Tim Rezvan from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:27:57Good morning, folks, and thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to sort of follow-up on prior comments on the balance sheet. In talking with you all last night, we sensed confidence on hitting or exceeding your asset sale target. It comes on top of pretty strong free cash flow. But when we see leverage in this commodity price environment, we simply don't see a lot of organic deleveraging even if we were to assume several 100,000,000 of asset sales that didn't have earnings. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:28:25So can you talk about how realistic that one times leverage target is over the next one to two years? And maybe kind of looking at it a different way, what's the appropriate debt balance that a company your size should have? Thanks. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:28:44Tim, thanks for the question. It's David. As you know, our stated framework is to operate between one and one point five times. And as you heard earlier from Brandy and in our released results as well, we're obviously no change. We're focused on managing the business through the cycle and taking care of the capital structure and making sure we've got a strong balance sheet. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:29:13So I think you'll continue to see us pay down debt out of free cash flow. We're at the higher end of our range now. Think that's consistent with what we've said. And to your point, we do generate a lot of free cash flow and we're also well hedged with long term debt. So I think we've got a very strong path over time to reducing debt, but also, again, I think we've proven we'll stay within our leverage targets. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:29:46Maybe on a little more specific thoughts around how we see the appropriate way to leverage companies in the oil and gas sector. I'll let Randy cover this, but we're well aligned as a company strategically on how we think about asset base and leverage. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:30:06Yes, I'll add. So as Dave mentioned, right, we generate a lot of cash. We're well hedged. We have a less capital intensive business, meaning historically, we've reinvested 40% to 50% of our cash flows. I do think inherently our business has an ability to delever over time, both on an absolute basis, but then also with respect to an overall leverage metric. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:30:33We have roughly $250,000,000 drawn on the RBL today. We would expect that to be repaid out of cash flow as we move towards the end of the year. And then the only maturity that exists before 2032 would be the remaining 500,000,000 of our 2028 notes. As we look forward, again, assuming of we're in a similar commodity price environment, we can kind of pay those off again without a cash flow. So as we move through the end of this year and into next year, we could be looking at some long term debt that matures between 2032 and 02/1934. Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:31:10So again, feel like we're in a really great spot and really within the guidelines of how we've operated the business for the last twelve years. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:31:22Okay. That's helpful context. And I just wanted to tie that to sort of your comments on being countercyclical on the A and D front. I appreciated the comments on the Eagle Ford. So is it safe to say you will remain nimble and that we should think about guidepost as leverage on structure for a deal and that you're comfortable with net debt going up if something is leverage neutral? Is that the right way to think about opportunities? Brandi KendallBoard Member & CFO at Crescent Energy Co00:31:52Yes. Think for us, right, from an A and D perspective, we want to earn two times our money or more. We're focused on accretion, and we want to make sure the pro form a business is really strong. And for us, we're comfortable going up to 1.5 times. So that's how we evaluate M and A. Tim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:32:10Okay. Thank you. Operator00:32:14The next question is from Michael Scialla from Stephens Inc. Please go ahead. Michael SciallaAnalyst at Stephens Inc00:32:20Hi, good morning. Wanted to ask this kind of high level, even after you've simplified the structure here with the elimination of the FC, your stock is still valued at about a one turn discount, at least to our mid cap peer group. I guess what do you see as holding the stock back? Anything in particular that you plan to focus on going forward? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:32:43Yes, think look, it's our job to demonstrate to people how good this business is. We're just going to keep doing it. I think this quarter is a great example, free cash flow, great returns and risk management and a great operating businesses is what we're building here. So I think it's, we're not going to make it harder than that. We just got to keep showing up. Michael SciallaAnalyst at Stephens Inc00:33:05Understood. I wanted to ask on Uinta, the decision to pause drilling there when it looks like you have some really good results. I guess, how do the returns between UNT and Eagle Ford compare? And if they are similar, can you just discuss the reason for keeping that asset kind of on hold here for a little bit? David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:33:28Yes. Hey, it's David. The short answer is, I think we've talked about before the oil weighted portfolio in the company in terms of our ability to allocate capital is similar across the Eagle Ford and the Uinta. But we've gotten significantly more, what I'll call stacked resource in the Uinta and we've got a larger acreage position with less development across it. So it's relatively straightforward to us to allocate capital between the two areas on the oil side. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:34:03We'll continue to do that. And all you're seeing is when we get great results in an area where we have not been as focused, we're going to stop and evaluate that and make sure we maximize the future development there. So we're really excited about it. We've got great resource on the oil side in both the Eagle Ford and Newinda, and I think you'll continue to see us allocate capital effectively across those two basins in some way. Operator00:34:33There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to David Rock Charley, CEO, for closing comments. David RockecharlieCEO & Director at Crescent Energy Co00:34:46Great. Thank you all again. As we said, we're really pleased with how the business is performing, and we're going to continue to do that and get back to work and look forward to talking to you next quarter. Operator00:34:59This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesDavid RockecharlieCEO & DirectorBrandi KendallBoard Member & CFOClay RyndEVP - InvestmentsAnalystsReid GallagherDirector at KKRJohn FreemanManaging Director at Raymond James FinancialMichael FurrowVice President at Pickering Energy PartnersCharles MeadeResearch Analyst & Member at Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.Oliver HuangDirector at TPH&CoJohn AbbottE&P Research Vice President at Wolfe Research, LLCTim RezvanManaging Director & Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital MarketsMichael SciallaAnalyst at Stephens IncPowered by