Fluor Q3 Profit Rises

(RTTNews) - Engineering and construction company Fluor Corp. (FLR), Thursday reported an increase in profit for the third quarter, reflecting strong growth at its Oil & Gas segment. Nonetheless, consolidated revenues declined due mainly to weak performance at the Industrial & Infrastructure and Government segment.

While earnings for the quarter came in ahead of Wall Street estimates by a penny, revenues fell short of expectations. Moving ahead, the company tightened its full-year 2013 earnings outlook, which at mid-point of range falls below analysts' current expectations.

Irving, Texas-based Fluor's third-quarter profit rose to $173 million or $1.05 per share from $145 million or $0.86 per share last year. On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of $1.04 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Fluor's revenues for the third quarter dropped to $6.68 billion from $7.14 billion last year. Nineteen analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $7.22 billion for the quarter.

Fluor's oil and gas division profit rose 24 percent to $108 million from last year, with revenue advancing 13 percent to $2.9 billion.

Industrial & infrastructure unit profit dropped to $132 million from $145 million a year ago, with revenues of $2.7 billion, down from last year -- due mainly to lower contributions from the mining and metals business.

Government segment profit for the quarter rose to $38 million from $23 million last year, although revenue declined to $675 million from $790 million.

Global services segment profit declined to $25 million from $29 million a year ago, with revenues dropping to $150 million from $159 million.

New awards for the third quarter were $5.6 billion, including $2.4 billion in Oil & Gas, $1.9 billion in Government and $846 million in Power. Consolidated backlog at the end of the quarter dropped to $36.5 billion from $37.0 billion at the end of last quarter.

Moving ahead, the company tightened its earnings outlook for 2013 to a range of $3.90 to $4.10 per share, from the previous range of $3.85 to $4.20 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $4.08 per share for the year.

For 2014, the company expects earnings of $4.10 to $4.60 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $4.60 per share for 2014.

FLR closed Thursday's regular trade at $74.22, down $1.79 or 2.35%, on the NYSE. The stock further dropped $2.90 or 3.91% in the after-hours trade.