Cheniere Energy, Inc. LNG reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.62 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.20 by 13.81%.
Revenues totaled $6.17 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.38 billion by 14.85%. The top line increased 39% from the year-ago quarter's $4.44 billion. Stronger LNG pricing and sales volumes supported revenue growth, with the company exporting a record 188 LNG cargoes during the quarter.
Cheniere Energy, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Cheniere Energy, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Cheniere Energy, Inc. Quote
LNG's Sales Volumes and Pricing Drive Growth
Cheniere Energy's LNG revenues increased to $6.10 billion from $4.30 billion in the year-ago quarter. Regasification revenues remained unchanged at $34 million, while other revenues declined to $40 million from $105 million.
The company exported 684 trillion British thermal units (TBtu) of LNG, up 17% year over year. LNG cargo exports increased 15% from 163 in the corresponding quarter of 2025. Total LNG volumes loaded reached 685 TBtu, compared with 586 TBtu a year earlier.
Cheniere's Profitability Improves Despite Cost Pressure
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased approximately 18% to $1.90 billion from $1.61 billion in the prior-year quarter. The improvement primarily reflected higher total margins on LNG delivered, supported by stronger volumes and improved margins per MMBtu.
However, total operating costs and expenses climbed to $4.26 billion from $2.62 billion a year earlier. Cost of sales increased to $3.21 billion from $1.75 billion, while operating and maintenance expenses rose to $540 million from $447 million. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to $112 million from $81 million.
Operating income consequently increased 5.4% to $1.92 billion.
LNG's Cash Flow and Balance Sheet Position
Cheniere generated distributable cash flow (DCF) of approximately $1.23 billion during the third quarter, compared with approximately $1.61 billion in the year-ago period. DCF represents cash available for debt reduction, shareholder distributions and growth investments after certain operating and financing obligations.
As of Sept. 30, 2026, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $1.66 billion, compared with $1.10 billion at the end of 2025. Long-term debt amounted to $22.58 billion, while total available liquidity stood at approximately $8.08 billion.
Cheniere Advances Expansion and Commercial Projects
In August 2026, Cheniere achieved substantial completion of Midscale Train 7 at its Corpus Christi Stage 3 Project, completing the development ahead of schedule and within budget. The project expanded the company's LNG production capacity by more than 20%.
Meanwhile, construction of Corpus Christi Midscale Trains 8 and 9 was 58.6% complete as of Sept. 30. These facilities are expected to add approximately 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of production capacity, with substantial completion anticipated in the second half of 2028.
Commercially, Cheniere entered into long-term agreements with QatarEnergy in October to supply up to 4 mtpa of LNG through 2054. Additionally, the company signed an agreement with Petrobras in September to supply 0.8 mtpa for 22 years.
LNG Raises Its 2026 Financial Guidance
The Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company raised its full-year 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA guidance to $8.75 billion-$9.25 billion from the previous projection of $7.90 billion-$8.40 billion.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The company also increased its full-year DCF guidance to $6.05 billion-$6.55 billion from $5.30 billion-$5.80 billion expected earlier. The upward revisions primarily reflect improved global natural gas spreads, higher LNG netbacks and operational optimization.
Management maintained its 2026 LNG production forecast of 53 million-54 million tonnes. For 2027, Cheniere expects production of approximately 56 million-58 million tonnes, reflecting completed capacity additions and successful debottlenecking initiatives.
Cheniere Strengthens Shareholder Returns
During the third quarter, LNG deployed approximately $1.5 billion under its capital allocation strategy, including repurchases of approximately 2.8 million common shares for $731 million.
The company also invested approximately $740 million in growth capital and repaid around $54 million of consolidated long-term debt.
Cheniere's board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 62.5 cents per share, representing an increase of more than 12% from the previous quarter. The dividend is payable on Nov. 17, 2026, to shareholders of record as of Nov. 9.
Important Earnings at a Glance
While we have discussed LNG’s third-quarter results in detail, let us take a look at three other key reports in this space.
ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation XOM reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $4.23 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.90 per share by 8.5%. The bottom line increased from the year-ago figure of $1.88 per share.
Revenues of $113.16 billion topped the consensus estimate of $103 billion by 9.9% and increased 32.7% year over year from $85.29 billion. GAAP earnings per share (EPS) rose to $3.72 from $1.76 in the year-ago quarter.
The strong results were primarily driven by record refining margins, operational efficiency and optimization activities.
XOM generated $25.65 billion in operating cash flow during the third quarter, supported by strong earnings and operational performance. Free cash flow totaled $19.11 billion, reflecting cash generation after investments and other cash-flow adjustments.
Phillips 66 PSX reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $14.08 per share, up 458.7% from $2.52 a year ago. The bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $11.97 by 17.6%.
Total revenues and other income increased 47.2% to $51.51 billion from $34.98 billion a year earlier. The top line beat the consensus estimate of $33.72 billion by 52.7%.
Stronger refining margins and higher processed volumes supported the results. Refining crude capacity utilization reached 98%, while clean product yield was 86%.
As of Sept. 30, 2026, total debt stood at $18.53 billion, down from $20.57 billion at the end of June. Net debt declined to $12.68 billion at the end of the quarter. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $5.85 billion, while the net debt-to-capital ratio improved to 26%.
U.S. energy supermajor Chevron Corporation CVX reported adjusted third-quarter 2026 earnings per share of $5.28, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.78. The 10.5% earnings surprise reflected higher refined product sales margins, improved crude oil realizations and reliable operations. The bottom line surged 185.4% from the year-ago adjusted profit of $1.85 per share.
The integrated energy giant generated revenues of $67.8 billion, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $60.5 billion by 12.1%. Revenues increased 36.3% year over year. Chevron's U.S. refineries achieved record crude throughput of 1.09 million barrels per day, operating at nearly 98% utilization.
Chevron generated $16 billion in operating cash flow, compared with $9.4 billion a year earlier. Higher earnings and increased cash distributions from Tengizchevroil supported the improvement. Free cash flow surged to $12 billion from $4.9 billion.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).