UPDATE 2-RPC posts Q3 loss on pricing pressure; shares fall

* Q3 loss $0.11/shr vs. EPS $0.26 year-ago

* Q3 rev down 44 percent

* Stock down as much as 7 percent (Recasts, adds CEO comments from conference call, analyst comments)

By Arundhati Ramanathan

BANGALORE, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Oilfield services company RPC Inc (RES.N) reported a third-quarter loss as depressed oil and gas prices led to lower drilling activity that continued to pressure pricing for the company's services, and it also gave a cautious outlook, sending its shares down as much as 7 percent.

Oilfield services companies were hit hard as oil and gas producers slashed spending this year. Firmer oil prices have helped stabilize spending in some areas, but natural gas prices globally have been too low to justify drilling many new wells.

"No one knows for certain if we've seen the bottom of this industry wide downturn," Chief Executive Richard Hubbell said on a conference call with analysts.

However, the company noted that it began to see signs of increasing customer activity levels and some improvement in its own personnel and equipment utilization during the third-quarter.

"Utilization will improve, that will drive higher earnings. But growth rate in earnings is going to be limited because of a lot of excess equipment capacity in market, there is not going be a lot of pricing power for service companies," Morgan Keegan & Co analyst Michael Drickamer said.

For the quarter, the company reported a net loss of $10.38 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with earnings of $25.78 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue dropped by more than 44 percent to $132.15 million due to lower pricing of services, coupled with lower utilization of equipment and personnel, the company said.

Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 11 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $123.05 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the Atlanta-based company were down nearly 5 percent at $9.78 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange. They had touched a low of $9.56 earlier in the session. (Editing by Maju Samuel and Anil D'Silva)