Written by StockNews.com

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD) late Wednesday posted much better than expected first quarter earnings results, but investors sold its shares off significantly in aftermarket trading.

The Irving, TX-based upstream oil and gas giant reported Q1:

• earnings per share (EPS) of $0.25, which was $0.09 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.16 and
• revenues rose 114.3% from last year to $1.47 billion, also easily topping analysts’ view for $1.1 billion.

Looking ahead, PXD said it expects Q2:

• production to be between 254 MBOEPD and 259 MBOEPD, while
• production costs should average $7.75 per BOE to $9.75 per BOE.

The company commented via press release:

“Our continued focus on strong execution and efficiency gains resulted in the Company delivering another great quarter, with solid earnings, production above the top end of our first quarter guidance range, continued impressive horizontal well performance in the Spraberry/Wolfcamp and reduced production costs, excluding taxes.

Oil growth in the Spraberry/Wolfcamp is on track, and we are benefiting from improved gas and NGL recoveries in the field.

We are drilling high-return and highly productive wells that have us on a trajectory to deliver annual production growth ranging from 15% to 18% in 2017 and to be in a position to spend within cash flow in 2018. This assumes an oil price of $55.00 per barrel and a gas price of $3.00 per MCF.”

Pioneer Natural Resources shares fell $8.10 (-4.74%) in after-hours trading Wednesday. Year-to-date, PXD has declined -5.12%, versus a 7.15% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

PXD currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of C (Neutral), and is ranked #28 of 103 stocks in the Energy – Oil & Gas category.