Layoffs hit Oklahoma City’s SandRidge Energy this week. The company did not reveal the number of employees who were laid off, but in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission explained the layoffs totaled more than 10% of its workforce of 310 employees.
President and Chief Executive Officer Paul McKinney, on the job since January, called it a move “to preserve the financial strength of the company.”
The layoffs came after SandRidge reported a $5 million loss in the first quarter of 2019 on top of the $9 million lost in all of 2018.
“Today we have taken steps to further align our cost structure with our current levels of production and cash flow,” McKinney said in a statement. “Although this is a sad and challenging day here, we remain optimistic about the future for SandRidge and its shareholders and extend our best wishes to our friends and colleagues that have departed.”
He later told the Journal Record, “this is something we needed to do.”
SandRidge Energy reported net income of $54 million, or $1.53 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2018 versus a loss of $18.7 million, or 54 cents a share, in the same quarter in 2017. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $5 million, or 15 cents per share, down from $11.7 million, or 34 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2017. For all of 2018, adjusted net income was $20 million, or 57 cents per share, down from $52.4 million, or $1.61 per share, in 2017.
At the time, McKinney, who was named president and CEO in January, said: “This is a great time to be joining SandRidge Energy. With a clean balance sheet, a talented team of oil and gas professionals, and the support of our Board of Directors, we are focusing on profitably growing shareholder value.”
Shares of SandRidge Energy closed Tuesday at $6.27, down from a 52-week high of $18.27.