WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Engineering and construction firm Fluor Corp. (FLR) said Wednesday after the markets closed that it swung to a fourth quarter loss, hurt by a hefty charge related to a previously announced arbitration ruling.
However, the company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, breezed past Walled Street expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell short of analysts' forecast.
At the same time, the company maintained its full year 2013 earnings guidance of $3.85 to $4.35 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters currently expect the company to earn $4.17 per share for the full year 2013.
'The underlying profitability of the Company has never been stronger, notwithstanding the surprising and unexpected adverse arbitration decision on our Greater Gabbard claims,' said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Seaton. 'We are very optimistic about the opportunities we see in our oil, gas, petrochemical and infrastructure markets in particular, and expect to deliver solid results in line with our guidance for 2013.'
Fluor shares are currently losing 1.32% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $64.34, down $1.94 or 2.93%. the shares trade in a 52-week range of $44.99 to $66.67.
Fourth quarter revenue for the company's oil and gas unit rose 25% to $2.6 billion, while revenue for its industrial & infrastructure group grew 5% to $2.8 billion.
Government segment revenue for the quarter fell 7% to $793.1 million, while global services segment revenue increased 16% to $468.8 million. Power group's revenue for the quarter surged 59% to $290.6 million.
For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2012, the Irving, Texas-based company reported a net loss of $4.4 million or $0.03 per share, compared to net income of $153.1 million or $0.90 per share for the year-ago quarter.
The latest quarter results include an after-tax charge of $265 million, or $1.61 per share, relating to the adverse arbitration ruling on the Greater Gabbard wind farm project.
Excluding this charge, net earnings for the latest quarter would have been $1.58 per share. On average, 17 analysts expected the company to earn $0.98 per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Total revenue for the fourth quarter rose 12% to $7.02 billion from $6.25 billion in the same quarter last year. Sixteen analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $7.20 billion for the fourth quarter.
Fourth quarter new awards were $5.12 billion, up 20% from the $4.27 billion new awards in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The company ended the fourth quarter and 2012 with a total backlog of $38.2 billion, compared to $39.5 billion a year ago.
Smaller rival KBR Inc. (KBR) today reported a sharp drop in fourth quarter profit on an 11% decrease in revenue.
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