CNX Resources Q2 2026 Earnings Results & Report

CNX Resources EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.32
• Consensus EPS: $0.6020
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.7180
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.43
• EPS Beat Rate: 8 of last 8 quarters

CNX Resources Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $618.48 million
• Expected Revenue: $475.16 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$143.32 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -35.70%

CNX Resources (NYSE:CNX) Corporation is an independent natural gas company headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. It explores for, develops and produces natural gas, primarily from shale formations in the Appalachian Basin, including the Marcellus and Utica.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Its natural gas is supplied to markets that serve residential, commercial and industrial customers, as well as electric power generation.

CNX traces its roots to the coal industry and the Consolidation Coal Company, founded in the 19th century. Following the 2017 separation of CONSOL Energy’s coal business, the remaining company adopted the CNX Resources name and focused on natural gas.

CNX Resources Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: 45Z credit monetization outlook improved: Treasury’s revised carbon-intensity calculations increased the expected annual value of CNX’s 45Z credits to approximately $40 million, with about $30 million of previously sold credits expected to appear in third-quarter cash flow. Combined with environmental attributes, CNX is targeting roughly a $90 million annual low-carbon revenue run rate.
• Neutral Sentiment: CNX expects third-quarter capital spending to rise from the second-quarter level before moderating in the fourth quarter, but reiterated that activity timing—not inflation—is driving the quarterly pattern and maintained its full-year CapEx outlook around the midpoint.
• Neutral Sentiment: Production is expected to build through the second half, with a 12-to-13-well Marcellus pad coming online in the third quarter and an Utica pad expected in the fourth quarter; management said it is not specifically engineering production around winter gas prices.
• Positive Sentiment: Management remains willing to pursue countercyclical share repurchases, potentially using additional revolver debt if risk constraints permit, citing a soft near-term gas outlook but strong longer-term Appalachian fundamentals. CNX also reported that Utica wells are performing in line with expectations and that drilling efficiency continues to improve, while well costs remain around $1,700 per lateral foot.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, welcome to the CNX Resources second quarter 2026 question and answer conference call. Today, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need any assistance during today's call, please signal for a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question at that time, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note that today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tyler Lewis, Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

[Tyler Lewis, SVP of Finance and Treasurer at CNX Resources]

Thank you, good morning, everybody. Welcome to CNX's second quarter Q&A conference call. Today, we will be answering questions related to our second quarter results. This morning, we posted to our investor relations website an updated slide presentation and detailed second quarter earnings release data, such as quarterly E&P data, financial statements, and non-GAAP reconciliations, which can be found in a document titled Second Quarter 2026 earnings results and supplemental information of CNX Resources. We posted to our investor relations website our prepared remarks for the quarter, which we hope everyone had a chance to read before the call, as the call today will be used exclusively for Q&A. With me today for Q&A are Alan Shepard, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Everett Good, our Chief Financial Officer, and Navneet Behl, our Chief Operating Officer.

[Tyler Lewis, SVP of Finance and Treasurer at CNX Resources]

Please note that the company's remarks made during this call, including answers to questions, include forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and our actual results may differ materially as a result of many factors. A discussion of risks and uncertainties related to those factors in CNX's business is contained in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in a release issued today. Thank you for joining us this morning, operator, can you please open the call for Q&A at this time?

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw it, please press star then two. Today's first question will come from Gabe Daoud with Truist. Please go ahead.

[Gabe Daoud, Analyst at Truist]

Thanks, operator. Morning, everyone.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Hey.

[Gabe Daoud, Analyst at Truist]

Hey. Morning, guys. Can we just start with 45Z maybe and just the updated guidance there around credit monetization? How should we think about, I guess, timing around Treasury issuing a final ruling to feel comfortable about that $40 million revenue number for 2027?

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. On the Treasury guidance itself, that's be sometime second part of this year. I'll turn it over to Everett. He can sort of walk you through what happened recently.

[Everett Good, CFO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. There are a couple pieces that we disclosed. One was a step-up in cash flows for the current year, where we had confirmation that the methane stream captured for the first four months of 2025 qualified for credit. We stepped up our monetization this year. Treasury also refined its carbon intensity calculations and its GREET model, which raised the value of our annual monetization to approximately $40 million a year. We combine our 45Z sales going forward, which will be monetized in 2027, plus our environmental attributes. We're targeting approximately a $90 million a year run rate between the two.

[Gabe Daoud, Analyst at Truist]

Okay. $90 million a year. Okay, great. Thanks for that. Maybe just a follow-up. Could we get your updated thoughts around capital allocation moving forward? Maybe a little bit of a weaker near term macro environment with a medium to longer term improving picture. How does CNX maybe think about capital allocation given that and your attractive cadence on the buyback?

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. Nothing's changed from our process. We're on year six and a half of sort of executing our capital allocation philosophy. Our focus is on creating long-term value per share. When we see sort of opportunities where the margin of safety is pretty big, we're going to go ahead and take advantage of that. We don't sort of signal as to what we're going to do, but we have a lot of flexibility, and we're seeing some attractive opportunities right now on the equity side.

[Gabe Daoud, Analyst at Truist]

Great. Okay. Thanks, guys.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Leo Mariani with Roth. Please proceed.

[Leo Mariani, Analyst at Roth]

Yeah. Hi, good morning. I was hoping you could talk a little bit to capital here. In your prepared remarks, you guys said that third quarter CapEx is moving up some versus 2Q, I guess it's going to move back down in 4Q. Just kind of eyeballing that, it looks like it kind of puts you at the higher end of the 2026 CapEx range. Just wanted to verify that that's generally accurate and maybe you guys are seeing some inflation starting to hit the numbers here.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

No, I would never read into that, Leo. We're still gotten to the midpoint of those numbers, the commentary is more just about reflecting of the timing of the activity we have going on in the field, right? You're just going to see slightly higher in Q3 and then sort of level out in Q4, and that just matches up with the activity in the field. Not seeing really anything on the inflation side to note.

[Leo Mariani, Analyst at Roth]

Okay. That's helpful. Just on production, you guys talked about how fourth quarter was the peak. Obviously, there's been weakness in gas. Are you guys attempting to sort of manage your turning lines a bit to try to get production to hopefully peak in winter when maybe price is a little bit better? Does that mean third quarter is a little bit weaker and fourth quarter is kind of the strongest? Just trying to get a little sense of what you're doing on the production.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah, I think the schedule usually naturally sets up like that, where we kind of have some of the pads coming on towards the end of the year. Again, we don't over-engineer for that answer. We're solving for sort of a different outcome. Yeah, the way it lines up this year, you'll see a big couple of wells come on in Q3, and then you'll see the rest of them sort of surge into Q4.

[Leo Mariani, Analyst at Roth]

Okay, that's helpful. Just on the 45Z, y'all mentioned that you monetized, you sold the 30 million of credits. Is that kind of all going to hit, like in the third quarter as kind of one lump sum payment for you guys? Just trying to understand that.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. As a reminder, you'll see it come through in the cash flow in Q3. That's why we disclosed it sort of early July activity. When you see it in the financials, remember, it comes through the income tax expense line and shows up there. You don't really see it in EBITDA. You'll see the cash flow impact, which is the most important thing, coming through in Q3.

[Leo Mariani, Analyst at Roth]

Okay. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question is from Michael Scialla with Stephens. Please proceed.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Morning, everybody.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Morning.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Just looking at your second quarter spending. I realize you don't guide quarterly, it was a little bit lower than we were anticipating, I think, the Street in general as well. Looks like you only drilled two wells. Granted, they were in the Utica. Anything slow activity during the quarter, or was that pretty much as planned?

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah, that's as planned. I think it's just a function of us not providing quarterly guidance. We're not planning on doing again, I would just look to sort of where the full year guidance is and where those midpoints sit, that's the right way to think about it.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

On the 45Z, obviously encouraging there, given that. Any plans for additional remediation, or are you just going to stick with the Buchanan Mine going forward?

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

No, that's the right question. We're starting to see this carbon intensity score come down and the value of these credits creep up. We're getting close to where that might make sense, and we're always evaluating the opportunities to expand the system. We certainly have some rights and opportunities to do that. Nothing definitive at this time. As we keep making progress, that would be the goal longer term.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Probably nothing this year, but possibly.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Nothing near term, no. Nothing for the rest of this year.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Okay. I just wanted to sneak one more in if I could.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Sure.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

It looks like your last couple quarters, you've set some 24-hour drilling records on the Utica. Anything you can say there in terms of well costs? I think you were in kind of that $1,700/ft range. Is that still a good number there, or is that moving either way?

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah, I would say that's sort of the number we're staying with right now. We've seen what we've talked about last time, is the opportunity for improvement is in the drilling side. Completions and the rest of the well construction's pretty steady. Every time we go back to one of these pads, every time we hit a new well, we're getting better and better, as you would expect, as the industry's shown over the years. We'll provide, when we're ready and we have a fulsome data set, we'll provide maybe an update on that at a future point.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Sounds good. Thanks, Alan.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yep. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Jacob Roberts with TPH. Please go ahead.

[Jacob Roberts, Analyst at TPH]

Good morning.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Hi, Jake.

[Jacob Roberts, Analyst at TPH]

Hey. I know you just specifically said no quarterly guidance, but I'm wondering if you could help us out a little bit on the activity plan from here, and specifically how we should be thinking about the till count by quarter relative to the higher level of spending in Q3. Maybe specifically, if you could comment on where the remaining Utica tills will fall in the back half of the year.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. I'll give you some direction there. We got a large Marcellus pad in process right now that'll come on in Q3. That's 12 to 13 a year tills we'll hit in Q3. The Utica pad that we're in the process of right now, that'll hit later in Q4.

[Jacob Roberts, Analyst at TPH]

Perfect. That's very helpful. Maybe for Everett, on the low carbon side, obviously positive to see the 45Z uplift there, but I wanted to focus on the Pennsylvania AEC market. It sounded to me like if you're thinking about $90 million for next year, that's a flat run rate on the AEC market going forward. I'm just curious if you could speak to what you're seeing in that market and kind of the confidence you have around the numbers for the rest of this year and into 2027.

[Everett Good, CFO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. We're essentially just marking it to market off of where we're seeing it trade off ICE. We're assuming it's stable to flat. We do see some level of volatility in that market, and as we provide go forward guidance, we can constantly mark it to market. We're seeing relative stability there in the price.

[Jacob Roberts, Analyst at TPH]

Great. I appreciate the time.

[Operator]

As a reminder, if you do have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Betty Jiang with Barclays. Please proceed.

[Betty Jiang, Analyst at Barclays]

Great. Thank you. Good morning.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Good morning, Betty.

[Betty Jiang, Analyst at Barclays]

A question on the buyback. Clearly, you're really leaning into the counter cyclical buyback here. Just wondering philosophically, I think you took on some debt on the revolver. What's your willingness to lean on the debt to buy back more stock in this environment?

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah, that's a good question. I think maybe if you think about the short-term outlook for gas and the longer-term outlook, maybe that's informative, right? 2026 going into 2027 is setting up to be a little bit soft. Longer term, the outlook for gas here in Appalachia in particular is tremendous. If that's your view, you should be much more as a sort of an upstream operator, much more interested in repurchasing shares, right? I think based on our activity level, there's a reasonable argument that we're probably the most bullish of the operators here in Appalachia. Under that circumstances, if the right constraints and risk management around it, you could certainly see outspend if that's what made sense. Regardless of any of that, we're going to keep running the process we've been running for the last six years and allocate capital to the best use.

[Betty Jiang, Analyst at Barclays]

Got it. Okay. Makes sense. Operationally, of two parts to focus. One, the lateral length is a lot longer in 2Q in Southwest P.A. Just if you could comment on is that specific to 2Q or just generally your program is getting longer in lateral length? Secondly, on the Central P.A., now that your 1Q well has been on for a while, you also brought on Utica in the second quarter, just maybe how these wells are faring relative to your expectations.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Yeah. On the lat length, that's really a function of what your acreage position is. Obviously, the longer the better in terms of well economics. We try to fit them in to optimize for that. Again, it's a function of where you have acreage. On the Utica side, I think you see from the state data and from whatever else that's been published out there that these wells are performing sort of as we guided to. We're very pleased with sort of the results from the Utica, and we think it's top tier in the basin.

[Betty Jiang, Analyst at Barclays]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

This does conclude today's question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Tyler Lewis for any closing remarks.

[Tyler Lewis, SVP of Finance and Treasurer at CNX Resources]

Great. Thank you again for joining us this morning, and please feel free to reach out if anyone has any additional questions. Otherwise, we'll look forward to speaking with everyone again next quarter. Thank you.

[Alan Shepard, President and CEO at CNX Resources]

Thanks, everybody.

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Tyler Lewis, SVP of Finance and Treasurer
• Alan Shepard, President and CEO
• Everett Good, CFO

Analysts

• Gabe Daoud, Analyst at Truist
• Leo Mariani, Analyst at Roth
• Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens
• Jacob Roberts, Analyst at TPH
• Betty Jiang, Analyst at Barclays