SM Energy Company

Good morning. Welcome to the SM Energy's 2026 first quarter operating results live session. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note today's event is being recorded. And now let's turn the call over to Megan Hayes, SM Energy's Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Megan.

Thank you, Rob. Good morning and welcome to SM Energy's first quarter 2026 earnings call. It's a busy morning for everyone, so we'll jump right in. Joining me are Beth McDonald, our President and CEO, Wade Purcell, our Executive Vice President and CFO, and Blake McKenna, COO. Today's discussion will reference forward-looking statements. Please see slide two of our earnings presentation, as well as the risk factors in our most recent Form 10-K for risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures throughout the call. You can find the definitions and reconciliations to the closest comparable GAAP measures in yesterday's earnings release and in the slide deck available on our website. Please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up, as this simply allows us to get more of your questions in today. With that, I'll turn it over to Beth.

Thanks, Megan. Good morning, everyone. The first quarter validates what we've set out to build with the new SM. We closed the Civitas merger on January 30th, and in just two months of operating as a combined company, we delivered production over the top end of guidance, capital below guidance, and synergy capture that is tracking nearly two times our original target. That doesn't happen without an exceptional team. So let me tell you what we built SM to do. We have been deliberate and disciplined in assembling this platform, and today SM is better positioned than at any point in our history. We have scale across four premier basins, a high quality inventory that spans multiple years of high return development, and a team that has proven it can execute. That platform exists for one purpose, to put capital to work in the highest returning opportunities available and with the technical and operational excellence SM is known for. Execution compounds value for stockholders over time. This is our North Star and it drives and guides every decision we make. Our 2026 plan is clear. Integrate, execute, bolster. Integrate relates to the synergies that make us more efficient. Execute means operational excellence across every basin. And bolster means strengthening our financial position and leaning into the evolution of our stockholder return framework. After 100 days into the Civitas integration, I can tell you we are executing ahead of plan on all three fronts. Our first quarter results are proof positive and allow us to strengthen our full year outlook. On Integrate, we've actioned approximately $300 million in merger synergies, and we have raised our target to $375 million by year end 2026. That is nearly two times our original target. with a present value of approximately $1.8 billion, up from our prior estimate of $1 to $1.5 billion. Further evidence that the organizational capability we brought to this merger is real. On execute, we delivered higher production for less capital. Production was above expectation at 371,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with oil at 190,000 barrels per day. Capital was below guidance at $672 million. With this strong start, we are raising our full year production and maintaining our capital guidance, delivering more volume with the same investment and building a strong and sustainable free cash flow growth trajectory. On Bolster, the South Texas divestiture closed April 30th with approximately $900 million in net proceeds directed entirely to debt reduction. We have a clear path to operating at low one times leverage, and the trajectory from here is toward further improvement. As leverage declines, we expect to increase our share buybacks, and we expect to commence buybacks in the second quarter. We see tremendous value in our equity, and we know that the best investment we can make today is in ourselves. I'll hand it over to Wade to cover our recent financial performance and provide more detail on our balance sheet progress. Wade.

Thanks, Beth. Good morning, everyone. Well, to summarize, our financial performance was strong. Our adjusted EBITDAX was $970 million, and adjusted net income was $309 million, or $1.55 per diluted share. Lease operating expense and transportation came in below guidance. We're maintaining that guidance as cushion against potential cost inflation in a higher commodity price environment, and to get a full quarter of the new SM under our belt before we revisit. On a gap basis, the net loss was largely related to a non-cash mark-to-market adjustment on our entire hedge book as of March 31st. As you know, that number moves around with commodity prices every quarter. What doesn't move around is the underlying business. We delivered adjusted free cash flow of $20 million, despite the fact that we had approximately $180 million of one-time integration and transaction cash costs in the quarter. Capital came in below guidance. and we expect our free cash flow profile to accelerate meaningfully through the balance of the year. Let me spend a minute on the hedge book and remind you how we use it to reduce risk while maintaining upside exposure. We hedge to protect cash flow to meet near-term objectives, including funding high return drilling, reducing debt, and returning capital to shareholders. In short, our derivatives allow us to run the business for long-term value creation. Turning to the balance sheet, Since CIVI closed in January, we have reduced absolute debt by approximately $700 million through several well-timed and decisive actions. As a result, our pro forma leverage is moving into the low one times area ahead of our original year end target. From here, the trajectory is toward further improvement as free cash flow builds through the back half of the year. The credit agencies have recognized our rapid progress. S&P and Fitch both recently upgraded us, and Moody's moved to a positive outlook. We're running our business with investment-grade metrics. Lastly, our Bain Group reaffirmed our $5 billion borrowing base under our credit facility, even after removing our recently divested South Texas assets, and while also holding lower commodity price assumptions, a clear testament to the quality of SM's asset portfolio. So with that, I'll hand it back to Beth.

Thanks, Wade. Our results start at the asset level. So let me take you through each basin's recent performance. In the Permian, we turned 25 net wells in line. Our teams drilled the longest and fastest Wolf Camp D wells in SM's history. And we're also advancing Woodford development and Sea Rule upside with that effort. Completion efficiency improved 4% compared to 2025. And scale in the Permian creates procurement leverage and scheduling efficiency that neither legacy company had independently. In the DJ, first quarter turn in lines showed early time outperformance versus offset wealth. More importantly, we implemented simulfrac in our Watkins area, which drove a 25% improvement in completion efficiency compared to zipper operations. That is not a marginal gain, and the DJ is a low cost, high margin business. In South Texas, base production is outperforming and completion efficiency improved 6% compared to 2025. The South Texas asset divestiture strengthened our balance sheet and high-graded our South Texas position toward higher margin, liquids-rich opportunities. In the Uinta, our cash production margin was nearly $40 per barrel, the highest margin in our portfolio and the highest torque to higher oil prices of any asset we operate. That margin was achieved with only one month of the stronger oil price environment we've seen in 2026. We're encouraged by our move to longer four-mile developments, which are delivering meaningful savings and drilling costs per foot. In summary, the portfolio delivered, and we are raising our full-year production midpoint from 410 to 420,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and the oil production midpoint from 221 to 225,000 barrels per day. Importantly, we are maintaining our full year capital guidance of $2.65 to $2.85 billion. We expect the second half production run rate to be approximately 430,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 238,000 barrels of oil per day. Faster cycle times, strong well performance, and synergy driven cost savings are enabling our teams to do more with less. Looking ahead, our inventory rich four basin platform sets SM apart to deliver value today and well into the future. Let's turn to our framework for returning capital as it's important that the market understands its significance. Because of our strong start to 2026, we are moving to low one-times leverage. And with pre-cash flow accelerating through the back half of the year, we expect to strengthen that position further. We've taken decisive actions on the balance sheet and one-time integration costs are largely behind us. The synergy benefits are building With commodity price tailwinds, our free cash flow is accelerating faster than expected. Lower leverage and higher free cash flow are a powerful combination. This will enable us to increase the percentage allocated to buyback sooner than originally anticipated, and we expect to begin repurchasing shares in the second quarter. We see upside in our equity, and as the year unfolds, we have the flexibility to lean further into repurchases. What this quarter demonstrates and what I want to leave you with is that this organization can execute at scale. We captured synergies ahead of schedule, delivered results above guidance, and built a new company all at the same time. That capability doesn't show up in any line item, but I believe it is the most durable competitive advantage that we have. Our enhanced full-year outlook reflects that confidence, more volume, the same capital, and a clear path to our leverage target. And 2027 is when full earnings power of what we've built becomes visible. A full year of the combined platform, one-time cost behind us, synergies at full run rate, and a balance sheet at or below one-time leverage, and significant returns to stockholders. We are a powerhouse in shale, and we are just getting started. I look forward to your questions. Megan, back to you.

Turning the line now over to the operator for Q&A. As a reminder, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up.

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 from your telephone keypad and a confirmation tone to indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. As a reminder, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. And our first question today is from the line of Zach Parham with JP Morgan. Please receive your questions.

Hey, thanks for taking my questions. First, oil's moved higher post-Iran, and while it's pulled back the last two days, it's still quite a bit higher than it was coming into the year. you're in a bit of a unique situation in that you closed a merger in 1Q and you had plans in place to allow some acquired volumes to fall to kind of right-size that asset. But does your thinking change at all in a higher oil price environment? Is there a scenario where you could look to add activity? If so, is that later this year? Is it into 2027? Maybe just talk about that a little bit.

Thanks, Zach, and good morning. You know, our deliverables for 2026 are clear and unlikely to change. You know, so we don't see this current disruption in the market as a green light to increase our activity. We're just going to keep investing in our high return projects, generating additional free cash flow, reducing leverage and returning capital to our shareholders. You know, I said this on the call, but at our current valuation, there's not a better investment than buying our own shares. And so we'll have incremental capital to do that.

Thanks, Beth. And then my follow-up maybe for Wade, you gave some updated guidance around 2026 cash taxes, which is helpful. Could you just give us an update on how you're thinking about cash taxes over the longer term? Would you expect cash taxes to move higher in 2027 where the strip is today? Just trying to get a sense of where cash taxes might trend over time. Thanks.

Yeah, thanks, Zach. It's a great question. Yeah, I would say that, and we gave the guidance for this year, and it's all going to be about the oil price, obviously, in the coming years on whether we pay a lot of cash taxes or not. And I can just say if oil stays kind of in this area, strip-wise, if it looks like $70 or $80 next year or below, cash taxes will certainly be below $100 million. And if you get down closer to $70, the cash tax has become quite minimal, actually. And that's based on the, you know, the IDCs and the deductions we have and the efforts with R&D and all those things that allow us to maintain a lot of deductions.

Thank you. You bet. Next question is from the line of Phu Phan with Roth Capital Partners. Please receive your question.

Good morning, everyone. My first question is about the UNTA activities. Can you provide a little bit about the well productivity and the well costs over there? How are they trending right now?

Yeah, I'll start, and then I'll hand it over to Blake McKenna, who's also in the room. So, you know, our UNTA delivered strong Q1 performance. And our basin is oil focused. So it has the highest torque to this higher oil price, which we love. You know, we've been continuing to develop the lower cube, which is our high return development. And we have also leaned into several upper cube developments as well. And we're very encouraged by the results to date. So with that, I'll turn it over to Blake and he can add any color.

Yeah, we like the Uinta, especially in the oil price environment we have. This is a very integrated basin, meaning we've rolled together a lot of our different services, very consolidated from the land side. And it's an area where we continue to deploy some of our newest technology and some of our most exciting operations. And so we're going to continue to do that in the Uinta and feel great about how we're positioned in the Uinta right now. All right. Thank you.

And my just follow up about the asset sales. Yeah, I know we just did a big asset sales in the last quarter. So in the current high of environments, like are you looking to do more asset sales and what's going to be the size? Is it going to be smaller on the same size? I guess it'll be smaller.

Yeah, thanks for that question. You know, with our South Texas gassier divestiture, that really got us meaningfully to the $1 billion target. And that said, our assets have strong Q1 performance, and our teams are really doing amazing things in the early innings. And what this sell did for us was allow us to be patient, and it really allows us to look at the entire portfolio and be strategic about what creates the most value in the future for SM.

All right. Thank you.

The next questions are from the line of Gabe Dowd with Truist. Let's see what's your question. Gabe, your line is live for a question.

Hey, sorry about that. Thanks, operator. Morning, Beth and team. I was hoping we can maybe pivot to an ops question, particularly in the Permian in Howard County was looking at your permits. It did come across these ZZU wells, which appear to be U-turns. So I guess the question would be, how confident are you in U-turn wells and maybe what's changed in your view around U-turn wells relative to the past where I think maybe there was a little bit of hesitancy from SM on drilling U-turns?

Hey, Gabe, appreciate that question. One of the things we're excited about with the integration portion of these companies and getting these synergies together is some of the legacy projects team has come in with a really great experience on U-turn wells. We have been getting up to that curve and as a combined team, we're extremely confident in it. We've had great experience here in the DJ basin and we're still pushing that in areas where we can be creative to unlock leases and rock. We had it before and the team's executing on that and we're taking those same learnings down. We've also completed one of our longest laterals and we feel highly confident about U-turn wells and have not seen a huge effect in our costs at all in executing or fracking these U-turn wells. So they will continue to be a big part of how we strategically go after rock that may have previously been stranded and more difficult to access.

Awesome. Okay, that's great color. That's great to hear. Appreciate that. And then just as a follow up on the same topic, again, just just kind of sticking to that big spring area in Howard as we think about development on a go forward basis and remaining inventory. I guess I was curious around your confidence in the stack overall in that neck of the woods. And it looks like many of the offset wells there are largely Wolf Camp As. So I guess I was just curious around your belief in there being an adequate frack barrier between the Wolf Camp A and Lower Sprayberry and even deeper. Wolf Camp A versus the Wolf Camp D. Just trying to get a sense of, I guess, future reserve bookings from those multiple zones there that I noted. Thanks, guys.

Yeah, I think for the question, Gabe, I think when you look at the history of SM, we really put Howard County on the map. And so we have a deep understanding of the entire section within Howard County. So our teams continue to you know, evaluate that to deliver high returns in Howard. And that's multiple landing zones, some of which you mentioned, and then, you know, continuing to extend our technical capabilities beyond kind of the conventional cube. But overall, we're really excited. We've always loved Howard County, and we've pushed the limits for the Midland Basin as it stands in that area, and we'll continue to do so.

No, thanks, Beth. You certainly have. Really appreciate that. Thanks again.

Our next questions are from the line of Oliver Fong with TPH and Company. Please receive three questions.

Good morning, Beth and team, and thanks for taking our questions. Good morning, Oliver. I just wanted to ask, is there a scenario where if you're looking ahead to 2027 plus that you all would look to drive a bit more growth on the oil side under where the, just kind of given where the current commodity strip backdrop sits? I know you all have been kind of in that maintenance type of area.

Yeah, I appreciate that question. You know, again, just reiterating that 2026 is really about integrate, execute, and bolster, and we're going to continue to do that. That incremental free cash flow is going to go to our return of capital framework as we've laid out so far. But kind of beyond that, we have to look at the overlying conditions in the market, right? So we look at the longer-term oil price strength. And we'll continue to monitor the markets. I think we can all agree that there's a lot of uncertainty right now, and we need the straight to open and understand the infrastructure hits before we really understand the underlying fundamentals of the market going into 2027. Once we understand that, then we can build our 2027 story. But for now, you know, we've guided to our second half run rate being in that 430,000 BOE per day and CapEx similar to this year. So we've said that all along, and we'll continue with that story unless we see a fundamental shift in the 2027 commodity outlook.

Fundamentally shifts our outlook for free cash flow. Yeah. Because production will continue to be an output. We will maximize free cash flow.

Okay. That makes sense. And maybe just kind of a follow-up to that. I mean, have you all considered reallocating incremental activity towards maybe the Uinta just given – it is some of the highest torque to stronger oil prices given the higher oil cut within your portfolio. Is there anything that's preventing you all from doing that from a logistical perspective?

No, Oliver, there's nothing preventing us from doing that other than the fact that we don't respond really quickly to changing dynamics or disruptions in the market. We look at the overall program from a capitally efficient perspective. So we look at those high returns and we know that we're driving capital efficiency. If we throw in activity in and out of a basin really quickly, we might not have or be able to drive those capital efficiency numbers to the metrics that we're performing today. So we look at it holistically. It's not just one variable that pushes our allocation differently. You know, just like we said a second ago, if you went to, you know, activity makes sense to drive our incremental free cash flow in 2027 at higher oil prices, then that's when you could see us making a change. But for now, we have a great program going on. We have a high margin business there and we'll continue to perform.

Okay. Perfect. And if I could just squeeze one more in, just on the workover side of things, are you all doing anything incremental there or considering doing so, just given the more constructive oil environment? Just trying to think through what might have been contemplated in the initial outlook in February versus where things have shaken out since.

Thanks, Oliver. We've been pretty efficient on staying on top of all of that. Are there little tiny things we might move ahead? Sure, but not being meaningfully. We've got a great program on our workovers that are always looking at incremental returns. And in general, we've been on top of all of our workovers. So I'd say we're pretty efficient to date. I think you see those efficiencies in our 1Q numbers. So nothing substantial here. Perfect. Thanks for the time.

Our next questions are from the line of Jack Kindrigan with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi. Good morning, everybody. I first wanted to touch on the DJ Basin, which is new asset for you guys and had a couple months under your belt now, but just curious about your initial impressions there on resource returns and the general operating environment.

Yeah, I'll start and then hand it over to Blake. You know, when you look at the DJ Basin, just like I said in the prepared remarks, it's a high margin business. I mean, our drilling and completions team there is top notch, really pushing the limits on what we can do. And they've delivered. And so we're really proud of what the team has been able to put together. As far as, you know, the individual well performance and anything like that, I'll turn it to Blake for that.

Yeah, these are the wells that we have on our schedule are very high return wells. And the great thing about the DJ Basin is it recycles cash very fast. And so drill times are low. Fracks go very fast. And we've got a really good development program, especially with the DJ Basin being one of the older resource plays here in the United States. And so everything that we have on the schedule, we are very excited about upcoming.

Great. Thank you. And then Just wanted to touch on inventory as well. At year end, you communicated an eight-plus-year inventory at, I think it was $60 a barrel, but most mid-cycle oil prices have increased since then. Just curious about what the resource is beyond that $60 level that could be de-risked or become more economic at, say, $70.

Fair point. You know, the inventory that we released earlier this year was at the $60 WTI mark in line with what our budget was set at. And so in the current price environment, that number really only grows, right? So higher prices make more economic locations, extending the runway further. I think it's important that everyone just and I reemphasize that we remember that our number is primarily a 3P number. So it contains a lot of certainty and it doesn't include all the additional allocations I mean, all the additional locations that we continue to test and work on. And our technical team is known to bring those opportunities forward. So, you can see in the current price environment how, you know, that runway is extended much longer than the 10 plus years.

Got it. Thanks. If I could squeeze one more in on oil differentials that I know FM doesn't guide to, but we've seen some elevated numbers from peers looking into 2Q and the balance of the year. Given your diverse asset base, any insight on what to expect there?

I would say, you know, you look at Q1 performance and everything that's happened there, we would just guide back to what we've done to date, you know, and it's It's really pretty much steady. One thing I will emphasize is that we have a diversity within our four basins. That allows us to take advantage of any increases that we see in order to gain realized prices that are better than the holistic market or one individual basin. So we love our diversity. We love the fact that we can capitalize on different markets, and we're going to lean into that to drive more free cash flow.

Great. Thank you for the time.

Thanks, Jeff.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, you may press star 1 from your telephone keypad. The next question is from the line of Michael Scala with Stevens.

Please receive your questions. Hi, good morning, everybody. Wade, you mentioned you're de-levering more quickly than you thought, I guess based on where the strip is. realize you just put this framework in place, but do you stick with that 80-20 split going forward, given that your stock is one of the least expensive in the industry, or could that form a change this year?

Thanks, Mike. We do like the stock price as far as buybacks, so thanks for pointing that out. You're right. It's very exciting to be able to see the path to the low ones area accelerating based on the higher oil price. I would just say for now, we're very focused on obviously the second quarter, very excited to be buying back a lot more stock than we would have anticipated because the free cash flow is going to be so much higher than it was. And then, you know, as we progress through the year, we'll continue to monitor the leverage levels and just see how that plays out. I'll reiterate what I said before. What we're looking for is a low ones area leverage, assuming a mid-cycle oil price. Determining what that is, I think, is a good question, and we'll be monitoring that as well. And so as we move through the year and if all this plays out that way, then, yeah, at some point at the appropriate time, you could see us move that percentage up on the share buyback side.

Yeah, and the only thing to add there, Mike, is just any additional divestitures that we do will drive that even faster. Of course.

Yep. Good. Good to hear. Beth, you'd mentioned, you know, too early on the plans for 27 with the uncertainty. You've got to see how the Middle East plays out. I was curious how you're thinking about hedging 27 right now with the strip and the pretty steep backwardation.

I'll start and hand it to Wade, but our hedging strategy really hasn't changed, Mike. It's in line with what our philosophy has been for a long time, and it's really tied to leverage. So, Wade, I don't know if you want to expand on that.

That is a great summary, and that's what we continue to do. I'll just remind you that in this leverage area that we entered post the merger, kind of in the ones area, that drives us to hedge about 50% of our volumes on kind of a rolling year basis. And that's what we've continued to do. So we've continued to do that as the prices have moved higher. And we've gone, you know, To answer your question on 27, that means we've been putting in some hedges, kind of beginning some layers. We never go in too large at any one time. We methodically kind of layer in as we move along, so that allows us to capture big moves up in the price, which is what we've been doing recently.

Appreciate the answers. Thank you.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Kevin McCurdy with Pickering Energy Partners. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, great. Thanks for getting me on, guys. I wanted to ask about the second quarter production. It looks like it's a little bit lower than the second half run rate, but I wonder maybe if you could talk about where and what assets, you know, the production is declining and how you kind of see that trajectory through the back half of the year. And that's it for me. Thanks.

Yeah, what I would say about just looking at the second quarter in a vacuum, really, you should look at it more holistically. We're off to a great start. We've driven Q1 production to beat the top end of our guidance, and our well productivity was a primary driver behind that beat. So that should indicate how confident we are in our production going forward. And really, just to drive home our second half, of the year production run rate has increased. If you remember on the first class at 420 to 430, and now we're driving that to at least 430,000 BOE per day. And I think that's really the run rate that you need to look at going forward as it's important in our future to drive that free cash flow.

Appreciate the answers. That's it for me.

Thanks, Kevin.

Thank you.

We have a follow-up from the line of Jack Kindergren with BMO Capital Markets. Please receive their question.

Yes, thanks for having me back on. I was just hoping to follow up once more on the asset sales. I know South Texas largely got you to your target, but I was just hoping to get some more clarity on the nature of any potential sales, whether it's more PDP heavy, midstream and infrastructure, or any specific geography.

Yeah, I think we still have yet to determine that. So as we continue to review the portfolio, we'll start to fold in the synergies that the team is building and then align that with our technical expertise to really understand the valuations. And from there, we can prioritize the portfolio. If you imagine we've only had all the full data for just a couple months, really, and now that we're folding that in together, it really allows us to understand where we can create the most value on the market ourselves you know, as well as where can we see other EMPs willing to pay for that. So we're still in the phase of understanding and prioritizing, so I can't give you, you know, an exact place of where that might be. But we're looking at it, especially in this market of more interest and significant capital chasing these assets. So we're definitely looking at it.

Understood. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Jeff.

Thank you. At this time, I'll turn the floor back to Beth McDonald for closing comments.

Thanks, Rob. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. We're really encouraged about the performance we've had to date, excited that we got to share that with you today, and we look forward to seeing many of you on the road in the coming weeks. Have a great day.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.