Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call October 30, 2024 1:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Lavonne Zdunich - VP, IR
Carey Ford - CFO
Kevin Neveu - President and CEO
Conference Call Participants
Kurt Hallead - Benchmark
Waqar Syed - ATB Capital Markets
Sean Mitchell - Daniel Energy Partners
John Gibson - BMO Capital Markets
Keith Mackey - RBC Capital Markets
Aaron MacNeil - TD Cowen
Operator
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Precision Drilling Corporation 2024 Third Quarter Conference Call. I would now like to hand the call over to Lavonne Zdunich, Vice President of Investor Relations.
Lavonne Zdunich
Welcome to Precision Drilling's third quarter earnings conference column webcast. Today I'm joined by Kevin Neveu, our President and CEO, and Carey Ford, the CFO.
Yesterday Precision reported strong third quarter results which Kerry will review, followed by outlook commentary and an operational update from Kevin. Once we have finished our prepared comments, we will open the call to questions.
Some of our comments today will refer to non-IFRS financial measures and will include forward-looking statements which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Please see our news release and other regulatory filings for more information on financial measures, forward-looking statements, and risk factors. As a reminder, we express our financial results in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.
With that, I will pass it over to Carey.
Carey Ford
Thank you, Lavonne. In the quarter, Precision delivered year-over-year growth in revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and net earnings. The resilience of our high-performance, high-value business model, geographic diversification, and organizational focus on cash flow and return on capital drove our financial results.
We continue to strengthen our balance sheet with CAD49 million of debt reduction during the quarter and CAD152 million year-to-date, reaching the low end of our target range of CAD150 million to CAD200 million in 2024. Share repurchases were CAD17 million during the quarter and CAD50 million year-to-date, tracking the target of 25% to 35% of free cash flow allocated to shareholders. We expect strong cash flow during the fourth quarter and will continue to make progress with these targets.
Longer term, we plan to reduce debt by CAD600 million between 2022 and 2026 over the next nine quarters with approximately CAD190 million remaining, achieve a leverage level of low one times net EBITDA, and increase our direct shareholder returns toward 50%.