RPC Q1 2026 Earnings Report

RPC EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.03
• Consensus EPS: $0.01
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.02
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.06

RPC Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $454.76 million
• Expected Revenue: $406.68 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$48.08 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +36.60%

RPC Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 5/7/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

RPC (NYSE:RES) (NYSE: RES) provides essential equipment and services to companies engaged in the exploration, production and maintenance of oil and natural gas wells. The firm operates as an equity interest holding company, partnering with a network of independent service businesses to deliver a comprehensive suite of offerings for well completion and production operations.

Through its affiliated service companies, RPC offers pressure pumping and fracturing services, coiled tubing and nitrogen pumping, downhole tools and telemetry solutions, well intervention and workover services, along with rental tools and supply-chain logistics. This integrated model allows RPC to leverage specialized expertise while maintaining operational flexibility across its portfolio.

RPC’s operations span key hydrocarbon basins in North America, Latin America, Europe, West Africa and Asia, supporting both onshore and offshore projects. The company maintains a network of service centers and equipment yards in major drilling regions, enabling responsive field support and efficient mobilization of personnel and assets.

Founded in the mid-1980s and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, RPC has grown through strategic equity partnerships and targeted organic expansion. The company’s leadership team is headed by President and CEO David N. Mosley, under whose guidance RPC has continued to focus on operational efficiency, safety and service innovation.

RPC Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Revenues rose 7% sequentially to $455 million, driven by broad-based sequential increases across most service lines with Technical Services representing 95% of sales.
• Positive Sentiment: ThruTubing Solutions showed strong momentum — downhole tools revenue climbed 11% sequentially while MetalMax adoption and the UnPlug technology are accelerating, signaling further upside potential as penetration expands.
• Neutral Sentiment: Pressure pumping revenue increased 20% sequentially due to job mix, but management said it will not reactivate stacked fleets at current pricing and flagged natural gas takeaway constraints (notably in New Mexico) as a potential limit on activity.
• Negative Sentiment: Profitability and cash flow were under pressure — adjusted EBITDA fell to $53.5 million with margins down 110 bps, adjusted EPS was $0.03, and free cash flow was negative $1 million.
• Neutral Sentiment: Liquidity remains solid with $201 million cash and no revolver borrowings, the dividend was maintained at $0.04 per share, and 2026 CapEx guidance was raised to $160–$180 million reflecting opportunistic asset purchases.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the RPC, Inc. first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Today's call will be hosted by Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO, and Michael L. Schmit, Chief Financial Officer. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. I would like to advise everyone that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Schmit.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Thank you, and good morning. Before we begin, I want to remind you that some of the statements that will be made on this call could be forward-looking in nature and reflect a number of known and unknown risks. Please refer to our press release issued today, along with our 10-K and other public filings that outline those risks, all of which that can be found on RPC's website at www.rpc.net. In today's earnings release and conference call, we'll be referring to several non-GAAP measures of operating performance and liquidity. We believe these non-GAAP measures allow us to compare performance consistently over various periods. Our press release and our website contain reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Ben M. Palmer.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Thank you, Michael, thank you for joining our call this morning. Today, we'll talk about our first quarter results and provide you with a few operational highlights. First quarter results reflect a sequential revenue increase across the majority of our service lines, despite the winter storms early in the quarter. Demand strengthened as the quarter progressed. Within Technical Services, Thru Tubing Solutions downhole tools revenues increased 11% sequentially. We saw broad-based strength with most geographic regions growing double digits. Thru Tubing Solutions is a market leader in downhole completion tools with a portfolio of products supported by proprietary technologies. We have introduced a number of new products in recent years that have helped expand our market leadership position. Thru Tubing Solutions continues the rollout of its new metal-on-metal power section, MetalMax.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Adoption is accelerating with growth across both geographic markets and motor size offerings as inventory availability expands. MetalMax's performance and design characteristics are enabling entry into new markets and applications previously served by traditional power section components. Over the past six months, MetalMax has strategically displaced conventional power sections, but still only represents 15% of our power section utilization. We continue to see meaningful opportunities for further displacement as customers increasingly recognize the product's performance and value. Thru Tubing Solutions UnPlug technology, which replaces traditional bridge plugs, is picking up momentum with several operators opting to utilize the technology as their primary stage isolation method. We're also seeing success with our new surface vibratory technology, particularly in longer laterals. Overall, our downhole tools business is benefiting from longer laterals and the need for technologies to deal with the related completion challenges.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Also within Technical Services, Cudd Pressure Control's revenues were down 7% sequentially, led by weakness in the Rockies region and tough comparables in well control as the fourth quarter had multiple large well control events. This was partially offset by nitrogen, which was up 13%, and snubbing, which was up 8% as equipment was well-utilized during the quarter. Cudd Pressure Control's snubbing business is expected to receive and begin testing the big bore snubbing unit later this month. This unit was specifically designed for cavern gas storage work and was built to support a long-term customer with its storage well maintenance schedule. This work is regulatory driven and is part of our effort to continue diversifying into other markets. Coil tubing, our largest service line within Cudd Pressure Control, was down 7% sequentially. Coil tubing faced tough comparables in the Rockies and Northeast regions.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Our new two and 7/8 unit continued to be well-utilized, and we are upgrading an existing unit to handle the larger two and 7/8 inch tubing. Pintail Completions, the largest wireline provider in the Permian Basin, generated revenues that were relatively flat sequentially. Given our leading market position, we expect Pintail's business to trend closely with large Permian operator activity. Cudd Energy Services pressure pumping business saw a 20% sequential revenue increase due to job mix, primarily from operators to whom we provided materials and supplies along with fuel during the quarter. We have no plans to reactivate fleets at current pricing levels, but we are cautiously optimistic based on higher oil prices and less calendar whitespace. However, natural gas takeaway capacity, particularly in New Mexico, could limit improvement in customer activity.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Overall, we see recent geopolitical developments as incrementally positive as pricing pressures appear to be subsiding and current activity is being supported by higher commodity prices. However, we believe operators are cautious and concerned about the duration of higher crude prices and the perception of capital budget increases in the equity market. As such, we have only seen modest responses by customers since the Middle East events began. Our focus remains on full cycle returns, but our balance sheet affords us the optionality of leaning into certain markets where we see additional upside. We will continue to evaluate these opportunities with our focus being on cash flow generation and maximizing value over the long term. Now with that, Michael will now discuss the quarter's financial results.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Thanks, Ben. Our first quarter financial results with sequential comparisons to the fourth quarter of 2025 are as follows. Revenues increased 7% to $455 million compared to Q4 2025. Breaking down our operating segments, Technical Services, which represented 95% of our first quarter revenues, was up 7%. Support Services, which represented 5% of revenues, was flat. The following is a breakdown of our first quarter revenues for our largest service lines. Pressure pumping was 31%. downhole tools was 23.3%. Wireline, 22.7%. Coiled tubing, 8.5%. Cementing, 5.8%. Rental tools, 3%. Together, these service lines accounted for 94% of our total revenues. Cost of revenues, excluding depreciation and amortization, was $356 million, compared to $330 million in the previous quarter.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

This increase was primarily related to job mix as we provided higher levels of materials and supplies and fuel for customers during the quarter. In addition, the prior period also reflected the impact of transitioning of wireline cables accounting to expensing. SG&A expenses are $48 million, up slightly from the prior quarter. As a percent of revenues, SG&A decreased 60 basis points to 10.6%, primarily due to only a modest increase in SG&A with the increase in revenues. Depreciation and amortization was $43 million, up from $39 million in the prior quarter. Fourth quarter D&A reflected a $3 million reduction related to the change in wireline cable accounting. The effective tax rate was unusually high during the quarter due to the disproportionate impact of permanent non-deductible items, mainly acquisition-related employment costs on a relatively low pre-tax income.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.03 in the first quarter. Adjustments totaled $0.03 per share and related to acquisition-related employment costs. Adjusted EBITDA was $53.5 million, down from $55.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 110 basis points sequentially to 11.8%. The decrease was due to several factors, including higher materials and supplies, higher fuel costs, and lower other income. Operating cash flow year to date was $31 million and CapEx of $32 million. Free cash flow was negative $1 million. Operating cash flow was negatively impacted by increased revenues that resulted in higher working capital. Specifically, higher accounts receivable being a meaningful use of cash, along with unearned revenue that we benefited from in the fourth quarter, partially offset by higher accounts payable.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

At quarter end, we had approximately $201 million in cash, a $50 million seller finance note payable and no borrowings on our $100 million revolving credit facility. Our regular cash dividend remains unchanged at $0.04 per share. Dividend payments totaled $8.9 million. We expect 2026 CapEx in the range of $160 million-$180 million. We raised the low end of the range versus the prior quarter due to opportunistic asset purchases that we were able to deploy. Recall our 2026 range includes approximately $15 million delayed from late 2025. We will adjust our spend based on project returns and opportunity. I'll now turn it back over to Ben for some closing remarks.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Thank you, Michael. We are cautiously optimistic about the rest of the year as commodity prices are more supportive of activity than they were entering 2026. Much will depend on operators' ability to hedge at higher prices, the duration of higher commodity prices, and service companies' discipline in a more supportive market. I wanna thank all of our employees who have put in tremendous work to provide high levels of service and value to our customers. Thank you for joining us this morning, and at this time, we're happy to address any questions.

[Operator]

To ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Don Crist with Johnson Rice. Please go ahead.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Morning, guys. Thanks for letting me in.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Morning, Don.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Hopefully you all are doing well.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Morning, Don. Yes, thanks.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Obviously things are moving pretty quick with the conflict overseas and oil pricing where it is today. Just your thoughts around the spot market here and pricing in the spot market. You know, Compared to your competitors, you have more spot work market exposure, generally speaking. Just curious as to what you're seeing and hearing from your customers out there.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Okay. Thanks for the question, Don. We kind of as part of what we, you know, tried to relay in our comments there is certainly this environment with the prices is supportive. I'll say that we have seen some firming up. We have seen instances of some firming. I wouldn't say it is not broad-based yet at this point. I would say it's incrementally positive, but like I said, it's not really broad-based yet at this point.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Hey, Don, just to sorry to interrupt. Just to point out, too, you know, you're referring to Pressure Pumping and, you know, that's really only 31% of our overall revenue.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Well.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Just bringing that up.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

I was gonna say, is that across all kind of product lines, right? I would assume that Thru Tubing and coil, which is the fastest kind of return dollars from a operator's perspective, would see some firming as well.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Some, but, you know, they have a lot of larger customers. really, I mean, the spot is not as big a part of their business as it is for pumping.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Okay. Obviously you stacked a few fleets over the, over the past couple quarters, and I don't know what state those fleets are in, but I would assume they, that they could be brought back fairly quickly if that call arises. Just any thoughts around, you know, the yards to bring back equipment or upgrade equipment here, and the potential cost to bring back a fleet? I would assume that it's, you know, $3 million just for fluid and stuff like that, but any thoughts around the reactivation cost for a fleet?

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

There hadn't been a lot of discussion about that because like I said, there really hadn't been broad-based, you know, opportunities to really look at that seriously. At current pricing levels, no, we would not reactivate a fleet. There are some discussions going on that could result in us perhaps looking at that, but we would need some, you know, visibility into obviously the pricing and the duration of the work and the volume of the work that was gonna occur. In terms of time, you know, the fleets that you've referred to that we have stacked, those are no longer staffed, so it, you know, it would take some time and some planning to be able to restaff those.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

You're right, the pumps that we were to reactivate, they would be not necessarily all of them would need to have fluid ends replaced, so the cost really depends. Historically, you're right. If you needed to replace a full fleet worth of fluid ends, that's probably a reasonable estimate. I think it's still, at this moment, it's still a little bit early. It's a good question, reasonable question, but it's a little bit early. We're really not talking about leaning into reactivating fleets. I think the first thing we would try to do is take advantage of higher prices in, with the fleets that we already have deployed.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Don, just point out, those fleets are both, you know, are Tier 2 diesel fleets, which aren't, you know, as customers are more focused on obviously dual fuel and lower cost. Diesel's pretty expensive right now. That's the other factor there.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

I appreciate the color. If I could sneak in one more. On the labor side, are you able to get people today if you tried? Do you think that would be more difficult given the, you know, the current environment and people leaving to go to Amazon or other places?

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Well, you know, we haven't been hiring a tremendous amount, and not trying to increase the staffing, so we don't know for sure. You know, that could present a challenge, yes.

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Okay.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Which hopefully would play into the ability to, you know, firm up pricing as well, right?

[Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice]

Right. Exactly. I'll turn it back. Thanks.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Thank you, Don Crist.

[Operator]

Once again, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of John Daniel with Daniel Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Hey, guys. Thanks for including me.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Good morning, John.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Good morning, John.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Michael, When you listen to a lot of the E&P calls and read their press releases, it's essentially, you know, flattish with a couple of one-offs I think Don alluded to in terms of incremental rigs. Yet you listen to the land drillers, they're all kind of calling for higher activity in Q2 and with prospects for more work going out in the back half. I'm just curious, what do you think the disconnect is? For some of your product lines that might be tied more to the drilling side, are they seeing a similar rise of, you know, activity as maybe what the land drillers have professed? Just any color on there.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Yes.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

I mean, I think that there's hope that obviously as drilling improves, then that will improve some of our business, as you alluded to, and the pricing still hasn't caught up. I mean, there is.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

There has been upward momentum, but, you know, I think the disconnect is we haven't, and I think other of U.S. companies haven't really seen the increase in pricing yet.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Right

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

Push us to start moving. We still have kind of supply demand. Until it actually starts and we start, you know, getting a fair price making it worthwhile, you'll probably see more activity. I think it's just hopefully we read your note this week. Hopefully that's accurate and we see 50 new rigs come on that'll help drive price and activity, so.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Yeah. You know, John, our rental tools business is a relatively small percentage of our total revenue, and it's a nice business. It has good margins. You know, a lot high fixed costs, therefore, you know, increased revenue can really drop to the bottom line. It had been a little bit, had a little bit of a challenge in the last couple of quarters. They're seeing some improvement. I don't know that because it's small and, you know, they have particular regions where they're particularly active. They're seeing a little bit of improvement.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Right

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Wouldn't say that we're seeing anything that's broad based yet.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Fair enough. Yeah, I hope the forecast is right. I hate looking too stupid.

[Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary at RPC]

We hope it is too.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Yeah. The next question I've got is just, and I don't know if this might be too granular and you might not even have the data in front of you, but I'm curious, as your guys, the businesses talk about quoting activity, if you had to hazard a guess, the inquiries that are coming in, what proportion of them would you characterize as being from the public operators versus private? Again, you might not have that handy, but if you do, it'd be interesting to hear.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

The inquiries and questions coming in?

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Yeah.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Yeah

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

just people reaching out asking about availability, equipment, et cetera.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Yeah. No, it probably more the privates.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

Okay.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

I would say.

[John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners]

All right. Thanks for including me, guys.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

Sure. Thank you, John.

[Operator]

Once again, to ask a question, simply press star one. With no further questions in queue, I will now hand the call back over to Mr. Ben M. Palmer for closing remarks.

[Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO at RPC]

All right. Well, thank you for joining this morning. We appreciate it. Appreciate your interest and, hope you have a great rest of the day. Take care.

[Operator]

Okay. Once again, I would like to remind everyone that the replay on today's call will be available at www.rpc.net within two hours following today's completion of the call. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Ben M. Palmer, President and CEO
• Michael L. Schmit, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary

Analysts

• Don Crist, Senior Research Analyst at Johnson Rice
• John Daniel, Founder, President at Daniel Energy Partners