Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE:
DO) reported higher earnings for the third quarter, driven by growth in revenue from contract drilling.
Following the earnings announcement, DO shares are up 3.3 percent to $61.74 in Thursday's pre-market trading.
Quarterly results were also boosted by revenue related to the mobilization of a rig from Brazil to the Gulf of Mexico and a shift of some planned downtime into the fourth quarter, the company said.
For the quarter, the Houston, Texas-based offshore oil and gas drilling contractor reported profit of $256.9 million or $1.85 per share, compared with $198.5 million or $1.43 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue rose 9 percent to $878 million as revenue from contract drilling grew 15 percent.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.48 per share on revenue of $820.78 million.
Since the second quarter, the company said it has added 14 new contracts, totaling 18 rig years or $1.4 billion of revenue backlog.
Shares of DO ended Wednesday's regular trading down 1.4 percent at $59.75. The stock has been trading in the 52-week range of $51.16 to $81.19.