... despite strong performance, as revenue and profit increase in the first six months.
Petrofac Ltd (LSE: PFC), the provider of oil and gas facilities solutions, saw its share price dip by 89p, or 5.69%, to 1,478p despite posting encouraging results for the first half of 2012.
Revenue was up 20% to US$3.2bn and net profit was up 32% to US$325.3m.
With earnings per share up 32% to 94.82 cents, the interim dividend was declared at 21 cents per share -- an increase of 21%.
Ayman Asfari, Petrofac's group chief executive, commented on the interim results:
"We have delivered good operational and financial performance in the first half of the year and remain on course to deliver net profit growth in 2012 of at least 15%.
"Our strategy for future growth is based on three key drivers: geographical expansion; broadening our offshore engineering, procurement and construction capability; and implementing our Integrated Energy Services strategy. As previously indicated, over the past few months we have seen delays in certain contract tender processes with a number of anticipated awards moving from 2012 into 2013. Whilst these delays impact the expected level of 2012 new orders for Onshore Engineering & Construction, we continue to expect our strategy to deliver earnings growth in 2013 and beyond.
"As a result, we remain confident of achieving our target of more than doubling our recurring Group 2010 earnings by 2015."
The disappointing market reaction could be due to the fact that year-on-year growth in net profit in the second half of 2012 will be lower than in the first half of the year. Additionally, the group's net cash was lower at US$775.3m at 30 June 2012 (30 June 2011: US$1,768.0m).
Petrofac, which shares the oil and gas facilities market with Technip (LSE: TEC) and AMEC (LSE: AMEC), showed progress in onshore engineering and construction with the award of a US$330m Badra project in Iraq. Offshore projects and operations also offered promise with the award of a a US$220m contract to undertake refurbishment of the Bekok-C platform, offshore Malaysia and a US$465m award to provide onshore engineering and both onshore and offshore construction services to all of Apache's North Sea assets.
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> Barry does not own any of the companies mentioned in this article.