Oct 26, 2016 2 min read

FT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Range Resources Corp. on Tuesday reported a loss of $42 million in its third quarter.

On a per-share basis, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company said it had a loss of 23 cents. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 6 cents per share.

The results, released after the close of Tuesday’s stock market, topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 15 cents per share.

The independent oil and gas company, which has its Appalachian Basin operations based in Southpointe, posted revenue of $413.2 million in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Twelve analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $345.3 million.

Range Resources shares have increased 46 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has risen roughly 5 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $35.89, a rise of 24 percent in the past 12 months.

CEO Jeff Ventura said Tuesday: “Third-quarter results were encouraging, as production increased, unit costs improved and unhedged cash margins rebounded. We are excited as we look forward to fourth quarter 2016 and the full year 2017, as we anticipate improving margins on all of our products and continued improvement in capital efficiency.”

“Range reached another milestone with the closing of the Memorial (Resource Development) merger on Sept. 16. Combining the North Louisiana stacked pay assets with our extensive Marcellus/Utica inventory makes Range a better and stronger company, with geographic diversity that allows us flexibility in capital allocation and marketing.”