Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 9, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Mike Drickamer – Vice President-Investor Relations

Andy Hendricks – Chief Executive Officer

Andy Smith – Chief Financial Officer

Mike Holcomb – Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Arun Jayaram – JPMorgan Chase

Jim Rollyson – Raymond James

Scott Gruber – Citigroup

Saurabh Pant – Bank of America

Kurt Hallead – Benchmark

Keith MacKey – RBC

Don Crist – Johnson Rice

John Daniel – Daniel Energy Partners

Derek Podhaizer – Barclays

Luke Lemoine – Piper Sandler

Operator

Good morning. My name is Colby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Patterson-UTI Energy Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

I will now turn the call over to Mike Drickamer, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Mike Drickamer

Thank you, Colby. Good morning. And on behalf of Patterson-UTI Energy, I'd like to welcome you to today's conference call to discuss the results for the three months ended December 31, 2022.

Participating in today's call will be Andy Hendricks, Chief Executive Officer; Andy Smith, Chief Financial Officer; and Mike Holcomb, Chief Operating Officer.

A quick reminder that statements made in this conference call that state the company's or management's plans, intentions, Targets beliefs, expectations or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and disclosed in the company's SEC filings, which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Statements made in this conference call include non-GAAP financial measures. The required reconciliations to GAAP financial measures are included on our website, patenergy.com and in the company's press release issued prior to this conference call.

And now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Andy Hendricks for some opening remarks. Andy?

Andy Hendricks

Thanks Mike. Good morning and thank you for joining us today for Patterson-UTI's fourth quarter conference call. We are pleased to report another quarter of solid financial results with improving profitability. Adjusted EBITDA grew every quarter in 2022, with fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA almost 5x our fourth quarter 2021. Our fourth quarter results were driven by continued improvement in pricing and exceptional execution. Also, during the fourth quarter, we returned $74 million to shareholders through our regular quarterly dividend and $57 million of share repurchases. Additionally, we retired $22 million of long-term indebtedness through open market purchases.