Investing.com -- Shares in Piedmont Natural Gas Company Inc (NYSE:PNY) plummeted more than 5% in after-hours trading after the Charlotte-based natural gas distributor posted worse than expected revenue in its quarterly earnings report released on Friday.
For the quarter that ended on April 30, Piedmont Natural Gas earned revenue of $424.9 million, a dip of 8.1% from the same period in 2014. The distributor's revenues also fell below analysts' forecasts of $489 million or 0.79 per share. Piedmont's revenue fell sharply amid a spike in operations and maintenance expenses, the distributor said in a statement. During the period, O&M expenses increased to $71.4 million due primarily to increased contract labor, higher employee benefits and approved regulatory asset amortizations.
Piedmont services more than one million residential and industrial customers, predominantly in North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. Over the quarter, Piedmont Natural Gas had a margin of $225.6 million, an increase of 14.1 million on a year-over-year basis. Piedmont attributed the increase to integrity management rider (IMR) rate adjustments, as well as higher margin sales and volumes in the secondary markets.
The natural gas distributor still earned net income of $66.4 million or 0.84 per diluted share during the quarter, compared with $62.5 million or 0.80 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Piedmont attributed the rise in income to a rate adjustment, as well as a growing customer base.
Natural gas futures extended its slump to a third consecutive session on Friday, falling 1.22% to 2.594 $2.594 MM BTU. Over the last two months, natural gas futures are down more than 3%.
Shares in Piedmont Natural Gas fell 1.93 or 5.36% to 34.11 in after-hours trading.