ATP Oil & Gas profit jumps 71 percent, beats Wall St. view

The results blasted past Wall Street's expectations. Shares jumped $2.40, or 7.1 percent, to $36.01 in premarket trading, from their close at $33.61.

The company earned $46.8 million, or $1.29 per share, compared with a year-ago profit of $27.4 million, or 89 cents per share.

Excluding a one-time loss, the company earned $47.2 million or $1.30 per share.

The per-share results reflect an 18 percent increase in the number of outstanding shares in the 2008 quarter, versus a year ago.

Revenue leaped 55 percent to $226.9 million, from $146.3 million in the prior-year period.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 99 cents per share, on revenue of $223.1 million, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

The company said oil and gas production increased 36 percent to 21.6 billions of cubic feet equivalent for the first quarter.