Fluor on Course With $32-Million Profit for Quarter

Despite a weak economy, Fluor Corp. continued to stay on course in the second quarter of its fiscal 1992 and Thursday reported earnings of $32.4 million, equal to 40 cents per share, for the period ended April 30.

Excluding a onetime federal tax refund gain of $15 million for the same period last year, Fluor’s second-quarter earnings were up 23%.

With the tax gain factored in, however, second-quarter profit was down 22% from the Irvine-based engineering and construction giant’s posted earnings of $41.6 million, or 51 cents a share, in the second quarter of its fiscal 1991.

Revenues for the 1992 second quarter of $1.6 billion were down 7% from $1.7 billion a year earlier.

Spokeswoman Deborah Land attributed the dip in revenue to an increase in large contracts that take longer to generate income than do smaller contracts that can be started almost immediately.

Fluor’s backlog grew to $12 billion, up 18% from $10.2 billion in its fiscal 1991 second period. The gain came almost entirely from two major projects with a total value of $1.2 billion that were awarded in March.

Fluor Daniel--the company’s core engineering and construction subsidiary--won the contracts to expand an oil refinery in the Philippines and to upgrade a refinery in Belgium.

Fluor’s latest showing is “generally in line with Wall Street’s expectations,” said Mark Altman, an analyst with PaineWebber in New York. And investors were rewarded as Fluor’s stock closed at $43.13 a share on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, up $1.38 for the day.

“The company is highly diversified, so even as some of the industrial markets have run into problems, energy related projects remain strong for it,” Altman said.

St. Louis-based lead producer Doe Run Co. remained Fluor’s weak link as the subsidiary sustained a loss of about $4 million, compared to a $1-million loss for the second quarter of 1991.