Fluor Achieves Record Annual Profit as Cost-Cutting Pays Off : Earnings: Net of $231.8 million is up 20% from preceding year. Revenue gains 10% to $9.3 billion.

Fluor Corp. chalked up a record profit for fiscal 1995, a result of ongoing efforts to slash operating costs and focus on high-yield projects, the company said Thursday.

Fluor reported $231.8 million in profit, up 20% from $192.4 million a year earlier. Revenue for the Irvine-based international engineering and construction services company rose to $9.3 billion for the 12 months ended Oct. 31, up 10% from $8.5 billion for the preceding year.

“They are showing that their underlying core businesses are very strong,” said Robert E. Toomey, an analyst with Minneapolis investment banking firm Piper Jaffray Inc. “And their new orders are just fantastic.”

Fluor said its Fluor Daniel operating subsidiary booked $10.7 billion in new business during the fiscal year, a 27% increase from $8.1 billion a year earlier. In the fourth quarter alone, the company said, new business at Fluor Daniel more than doubled to nearly $2.7 billion.

Pretax or operating profit at Fluor Daniel rose 10% to a record $286 million.

Additionally, the company’s A.T. Massey low-sulfur-coal mining unit posted a record operating profit of $111 million. The 17% gain came from strong sales of surpluses and price increases that boosted margins.

For the fourth quarter, Fluor’s profit rose 26% to $66 million from $52.4 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 8% to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion.

“Fluor’s record results reflect continuing benefits from our ongoing re-engineering program” to refocus the company’s efforts, said Les McCraw, Fluor’s chairman and chief executive officer.

That program began several years ago and has included personnel cuts, a shift away from government contracting and expansion of Fluor’s construction management and facilities services business.

The company’s 1995 profit equaled $2.78 per share, compared with $2.32 a share in fiscal 1994. Fourth-quarter earnings per share hit 79 cents, up from 63 cents a year earlier.

The performance exceeded analysts’ estimates and spurred investors on Thursday to boost Fluor’s stock price by 75 cents to close at $65 per share, matching its high for the year on the New York Stock Exchange.