CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CEIX) reported Q4 EPS of $1.41, versus $0.73 reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $347 million versus the consensus estimate of $344.53 million.

• Net income and cash provided by operating activities of $46.0 million and $83.3 million, respectively;
• Total dilutive earnings per share of $1.41;
• Adjusted EBITDA2 of $115.2 million;
• Organic free cash flow net to CEIX shareholders2 of $28.9 million;
• Repurchased approximately 1.5% of average outstanding CEIX shares;
• Expect to make a required pre-payment of approximately $110 million towards Term Loan B in February 2019;
• Total net leverage ratio2 reduced to 1.7x at December 31, 2018 compared to 2.4x at the end of 2017;
• Annual production and sales volume records at the Pennsylvania Mining Complex (PAMC);
• Annual revenue record at the CONSOL Marine Terminal.

Management Comments

"I am extremely proud to announce our results for the fourth quarter of 2018, as it was another strong quarter and capped off a year of many achievements" said Jimmy Brock, Chief Executive Officer of CONSOL Energy Inc. "The quarter marked a milestone for CEIX, as we completed our first calendar year as an independent publicly-traded coal company. In 2018, we also produced and sold more coal than in any other year throughout the PAMC\'s 35-year history. I am also pleased to announce that we have made significant improvement during 2018 on the safety front as well. Our total recordable incident rate at the PAMC for full year 2018 has improved by 13.5% and our total number of exceptions improved by 12.1% compared to the same period last year. We continue to remain laser-focused on having zero life-altering injuries."

"At the time of becoming an independent publicly traded company in November 2017, we targeted some very specific near-term goals and priorities. We set out to de-lever our balance sheet, improve liquidity and initiate returns to our shareholders while safely and compliantly delivering earnings growth. I am pleased to announce that we delivered on all those goals during 2018. Operationally, we have set new annual production and sales records at the PAMC, marking three consecutive years of production growth. Financially, we have reduced the leverage on our balance sheet by 0.7x since year-end 2017 and opportunistically returned $28.9 million of capital to our shareholders through CEIX share repurchases and investment in CCR units. We also retired approximately $56.0 million of our term loans and second lien notes. For 2019, we expect to continue to focus on further de-levering our balance sheet and increasing shareholder returns. We are also now turning our focus towards strategically growing our business, which will diversify our revenue streams and increase our value per share."

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