METC Q2 2026 - Preliminary Earnings Alert
Event: Quartr Q2 2026 event
Retrieved: 2026-08-04T22:30:00Z
Comparison mode: maximal
Scorecard contract: v1
Source status: release=available | financials=earnings release only | transcript=not available (call scheduled 2026-08-05 15:00Z)
Consensus scorecard
| Metric / basis |
Quartr actual |
API Ninjas consensus |
Beat/Miss |
Beat/Miss % |
| Revenue / consolidated revenue |
$144.799m |
$133.720m |
Beat +$11.079m |
+8.3% |
| EPS / GAAP diluted, Class A |
$(0.26) |
$(0.2485) |
Miss −$0.0115 |
−4.6% |
Reported results and guidance
| Metric (GAAP unless noted) |
Q2 2026 |
Q2 2025 |
Change |
| Revenue |
$144.799m |
$152.959m |
−5.3% |
| Cost of sales (exclusive of items shown separately) |
$128.176m |
$134.182m |
−4.5% |
| Asset retirement obligations accretion |
$0.483m |
$0.402m |
+20.1% |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortization |
$16.811m |
$17.038m |
−1.3% |
| Selling, general and administrative |
$17.577m |
$15.181m |
+15.8% |
| Total costs and expenses |
$163.047m |
$166.803m |
−2.3% |
| Operating loss |
$(18.248)m |
$(13.844)m |
−31.8% |
| Other income, net |
$0.189m |
$0.658m |
−71.3% |
| Interest expense, net |
$(1.519)m |
$(2.818)m |
−46.1% |
| Loss before tax |
$(19.578)m |
$(16.004)m |
−22.3% |
| Income tax benefit |
$4.163m |
$2.030m |
+105.1% |
| Net loss |
$(15.415)m |
$(13.974)m |
−10.3% |
| Diluted EPS - Class A common stock |
$(0.26) |
$(0.29) |
+10.3% |
| Diluted EPS - Class B common stock |
$(0.13) |
$(0.12) |
−8.3% |
| Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) |
$5.7m |
$9.0m |
−37% |
| Operating metric |
Q2 2026 |
Q1 2026 |
Q2 2025 |
| Total tons sold (thousands) |
1,056 |
892 |
1,079 |
| Total tons produced (thousands) |
931 |
951 |
999 |
| Elk Creek production (thousands of tons) |
701 |
717 |
688 |
| Berwind production, incl. Knox Creek and Maben (thousands of tons) |
230 |
234 |
311 |
| Non-GAAP revenue per ton sold (FOB mine) |
$116 |
$114 |
$123 |
| Non-GAAP cash cost of sales per ton (FOB mine) |
$99 |
$98 |
$103 |
| Non-GAAP cash margin per ton |
$17 |
$16 |
$20 |
| Cash capital expenditures |
$27.401m |
$17.100m |
$15.149m |
| Liquidity |
$400.1m |
$488.8m |
$87.3m |
| Six-month and balance-sheet item |
2026 |
2025 or 31 Dec 2025 |
Change |
| Six-month revenue |
$266.412m |
$287.615m |
−7.4% |
| Six-month net loss |
$(33.734)m |
$(23.431)m |
−44.0% |
| Six-month diluted EPS - Class A |
$(0.56) |
$(0.48) |
−16.7% |
| Six-month adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) |
$3.9m |
$18.8m |
−79% |
| Six-month tons sold (thousands) |
1,948 |
2,024 |
−3.8% |
| Six-month cash from operating activities |
$(22.430)m |
$21.779m |
to an outflow |
| Six-month capital expenditures |
$44.630m |
$35.461m |
+25.9% |
| Cash and cash equivalents |
$282.535m |
$440.347m |
−35.8% |
| Inventories |
$100.367m |
$87.155m |
+15.2% |
| Long-term debt, net |
$452.810m |
$451.361m |
+0.3% |
| Treasury stock |
$(66.343)m |
— |
new |
| Total stockholders' equity |
$376.067m |
$483.566m |
−22.2% |
Full-year 2026 guidance, as revised with this release:
| Metric |
New FY 2026 guide |
Prior FY 2026 guide |
FY 2025 actual |
| Company production (thousand tons) |
3,600–3,900 |
3,700–4,100 |
3,826 |
| Sales (thousand tons) |
4,000–4,300 |
4,100–4,500 |
3,834 |
| Cash costs per ton sold |
$96–99 |
$95–100 |
$98 |
| Capital expenditures |
$92.0–97.0m |
$85–90m |
$64.282m |
| Selling, general and administrative expense |
$70.0–74.0m |
not restated |
$69.363m |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortization |
$72.0–76.0m |
not restated |
$68.155m |
| Interest expense, net |
$3.0–4.0m |
not restated |
$7.804m |
| Effective tax rate (normalized) |
20–25% |
not restated |
17% |
| Idle mine and other costs |
$3.0–4.0m |
not restated |
$3.059m |
| Additional outlook item |
Guide |
| Q3 2026 coal shipments |
950,000–1,100,000 tons |
| Q3 2026 cash costs |
toward the higher end of the full-year range on elevated fuel costs |
Committed 2026 sales volume as of 30 June 2026:
| Commitment |
Volume (million tons) |
Average price per ton |
| North America, fixed priced |
1.1 |
$138 |
| Seaborne, fixed priced |
1.4 |
$108 |
| Total, fixed priced |
2.5 |
$121 |
| Index priced (not yet priced) |
1.3 |
— |
| Total committed tons |
3.8 |
— |
- Scorecard recap: revenue of $144.8m beat consensus by 8.3% while Class A GAAP diluted EPS of $(0.26) missed the $(0.2485) estimate by 4.6%.
- Full-year production and sales guidance were both cut; capital expenditure guidance was raised to fund the Maben low-vol underground development, and the cash cost range was narrowed with an unchanged midpoint.
- The company repurchased 3.5 million Class A shares in the quarter at an average $14.41 (approximately $51m), and 4.6 million year to date at an average $14.44 (approximately $66m), over 8% of Class A shares outstanding.
- The board declared a Class B stock dividend of $0.1535 per share payable in Class B shares on 25 September 2026 to holders of record on 11 September 2026.
- The independent Hatch conceptual study on the Brook Mine critical-mineral project was released on 29 July 2026, superseding the July 2025 Fluor report.
Key bullish aspects
- Revenue of $144.8m beat consensus by 8.3%, and sales volumes of 1,056,000 tons rose 18% sequentially, which the company says slightly exceeded its own guidance.
- Cash mine cost per ton sold of $99 was 4% below the prior-year quarter and marked the fourth consecutive sub-$100 quarter; the company states its cash costs remain in the first quartile of the U.S. metallurgical coal cost curve.
- That cost performance was delivered despite diesel prices rising approximately 33% sequentially.
- Cash margin per ton improved 6% sequentially to $17, and adjusted EBITDA swung to $5.7m from $(1.8)m in Q1 2026.
- Liquidity of $400.1m — $282.5m of cash plus $117.6m of undrawn revolver, with zero borrowings outstanding — is up nearly 360% year over year, and the company calls its balance sheet among the strongest in its history.
- The company is reallocating toward higher-margin low-vol coal: the board approved a $25m Maben development project expected to add 0.6 million premium low-vol tons at full capacity, at cash margins roughly double the overall second-quarter margin, with ultimate Maben capacity around 1.5 million tons a year.
- Combined with Berwind, the low-vol growth projects are expected to add more than 1 million annualized tons in 2027, supporting a target of low-vol reaching at least 50% of output from roughly 25% today.
- U.S. low-vol indices were up almost 10% year over year and Australian premium low-vol indices up 29%, the pricing environment the company is redirecting production toward.
- 3.8 million tons of 2026 sales are already committed, slightly more than 100% of the production guidance midpoint, with 2.5 million tons fixed at an average $121 per ton.
- Share repurchases of approximately $66m year to date retired over 8% of the Class A share count at an average price of $14.44.
- A new Maben rail loadout remains on track for Q4 completion and is expected to cut current trucking costs by roughly $20 per ton at that complex.
Key bearish aspects
- Class A diluted EPS of $(0.26) missed the $(0.2485) consensus, and the quarter was a $(15.4)m net loss — a wider loss than the $(14.0)m a year earlier despite an income tax benefit that doubled to $4.2m.
- Revenue fell 5.3% year over year and six-month revenue fell 7.4%; realized pricing of $116 per ton was 6% below the prior year as U.S. high-vol indices fell 6%.
- Adjusted EBITDA fell 37% year over year to $5.7m, and six-month adjusted EBITDA fell 79% to $3.9m from $18.8m.
- Full-year production guidance was cut to 3.6–3.9 million tons from 3.7–4.1 million, and sales guidance to 4.0–4.3 million tons from 4.1–4.5 million, on continued high-vol market weakness.
- The company is proactively idling one section at the high-vol Stonecoal Mine at Elk Creek, so the guidance cut is being delivered through capacity removal rather than demand recovery.
- Capital expenditure guidance was raised to $92–97m from $85–90m even as production guidance was cut, and quarterly capex rose 81% year over year to $27.4m.
- Six-month operating cash flow was an outflow of $(22.4)m against a $21.8m inflow a year earlier, and cash fell to $282.5m from $440.3m at year end while inventories rose 15.2% to $100.4m.
- Total stockholders' equity fell 22.2% to $376.1m against long-term debt of $452.8m, so the company now carries more debt than book equity.
- Q3 cash costs are guided toward the higher end of the full-year range on elevated fuel costs the company attributes to the Iranian conflict.
- Production of 931,000 tons was down 7% year over year and 2% sequentially, with Berwind complex output down 26% year over year to 230,000 tons.
- Current spot prices are described as marginally below second-quarter averages, so the pricing starting point for Q3 is lower than the quarter just reported.
- The Hatch study raised the estimated Brook Mine refinery capital cost to $3.2bn plus roughly $0.8bn of contingency and pushed initial production to 2031; the company acknowledges the initial reaction reflected the long lead time and large capital requirement.
Key uncertainties
- The $8bn net present value and $1.3bn average annual adjusted EBITDA cited for the Brook Project come from the company's own internal modeling using Hatch's capital and operating cost inputs, not from an independent valuation, and the release does not disclose the discount rate, price deck, or volume assumptions behind them.
- The Brook Mine remains an exploration-stage property with inferred mineral resources that the company states are not mineral reserves and may never convert; a Preliminary Feasibility Study is not expected until next year, with only an interim revision of economics by year-end 2026.
- Financing for the critical-mineral refinery is described only as "multiple discussions regarding non-dilutive third-party project financing" that may involve public or private sectors, with no committed amount, counterparty, or timeline.
- Offtake discussions are described as "advanced" for both domestic and international, strategic and governmental counterparties, but none is signed or sized.
- The release does not reconcile the raised capital expenditure guidance to the reduced production guidance beyond attributing the increase to Maben, so the split between growth and sustaining capital is not visible.
- 1.3 million of the 3.8 million committed 2026 tons are index-linked and not yet priced, so roughly a third of committed volume carries open price risk into a market the company describes as still weak.
- The company gives no revenue or earnings guidance, only volume, cost and expense lines, so the second-half earnings path implied by the guidance changes cannot be derived from these documents.
- The 0.6 million tons of incremental Maben low-vol production is stated at "full capacity" with cash margins "roughly double" the overall Q2 margin, but no timing for reaching full capacity and no absolute margin figure are given.
- Prior-guidance figures are restated in this release only for production, sales, cash cost and capital expenditure; the SG&A, DD&A, interest, tax-rate and idle-cost lines are shown against FY 2025 actuals, so whether those ranges changed cannot be determined here.
- The Class B stock dividend is paid in Class B shares with the share count set by the closing price on the record date, so its dilutive effect is not fixed at declaration.
- Adjusted EBITDA of $5.7m against a $(15.4)m net loss depends on the release's non-GAAP reconciliation, which was not read in full for this stage.
- No transcript is available yet, so management's account of the guidance cut and the Brook Project financing path cannot be assessed for this stage.
Market context
- API Ninjas snapshot: METC $9.64 on NASDAQ, volume 3,741,201, retrieved 2026-08-04T22:13:38Z. The earnings release was published at approximately 2026-08-04T20:33Z, after the 4:00 p.m. ET close, and the conference call is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. ET on 2026-08-05. This is a single quote of unstated session basis, not a measured reaction to the release.
Source limitations
- Every actual above comes from the Quartr Q2 2026 earnings release document. Quartr standardized financials for this event are not yet populated.
- API Ninjas supplied no actual or difference fields for this event, so each beat/miss is calculated locally as Quartr actual minus API Ninjas estimate. The API row carried no fiscal year or quarter, so the exact ticker-and-event-date match path was used.
- The API Ninjas estimate row is dated 2026-08-04 while the Quartr event is dated 2026-08-05; the release itself was published on 2026-08-04, and the one-day drift is within the tolerance of the configured comparison mode. A separate API row dated 2026-07-30 carrying the same revenue estimate and a $(0.23) EPS estimate was not used.
- The scorecard uses Class A GAAP diluted EPS of $(0.26). The release presents no adjusted per-share measure; Class B diluted EPS of $(0.13) is shown in the results table above.
- Year-over-year and sequential percentage changes not printed in the release are calculated from the release's own columns.
- Prior full-year guidance is restated in the release only for production, sales, cash cost per ton and capital expenditures; the other guidance lines are presented against FY 2025 actuals and are marked as not restated.
- No transcript exists for this event yet; the call is scheduled for 2026-08-05. A separate post-call update will cover it.
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