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COLUMBUS — Dynegy said Thursday that its first-quarter loss more than doubled from a year ago as tumbling stock and power prices forced the company to write down its own market value. Dynegy also cut 2009 guidance for the third time.
The Houston-based power company reported a loss of $335 million, or 40 cents per share, for the quarter ended March 31 compared with a loss of $152 million, or 18 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue was $904 million compared with $545 million a year ago.
The company recorded a $433 million charge that it says reflects a decline in the company's value.
Stripping out the charges and a gain of $169 million on forward contracts, Dynegy said it turned a profit of 1 cent a share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of $683 million. Such estimates typically exclude charges.
As the company has done several times in the past year, it lowered its profit outlook and now says it expected adjust earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $680 million to $740 million for the year.
Dynegy said in February it expected earnings of $700 million to $825 million and the forecast issued in December was $825 million to $1 billion.
The company said adjusted EBITDA totaled $198 million for the most recent quarter, down from $237 million in the year ago quarter.
It said it now expects a net loss of $520 million to $480 million for the year, up from its old forecast of a net loss of $140 million to $65 million. Much of the increase reflects the $433 million charge the company recorded Thursday.
The company blamed the decline largely on lower power prices. The company's prices for power generally are based on natural gas prices, which have fallen 72 percent since last summer.
The company's stock price hit a 52-week low of $1 on March 6, well off the 52-week high of $9.92 reached last May as commodity prices peaked. The shares slipped 9 cents to $1.75 in trading Thursday morning.
Despite the recession that led to a 3 percent decline in power generation nationwide during the quarter, the company said production rose 10 percent from a year ago and was particular strong at its natural gas operations in the Midwest and Northeast.
"It shows the benefits of diversity, either by geography or fuel type," Bruce Williamson, Dynegy's chairman, president and CEO, said in an interview.
He told analysts on a conference call that the company remains financially strong with $2.1 billion in liquidity and no significant debt due until 2011.
