Core Businesses Lift Fluor Profit to Yearly Record

Fluor Corp. said Wednesday that big boosts in its core construction and engineering business helped push its fiscal 1996 profit 16% to a record.

The Irvine-based company earned $268.1 million, or $3.17 a share, up from $231.8 million, or $2.78 a share, a year earlier. Revenue for the 12 months ended Oct. 31 rose 18% to $11 billion from $9.3 billion.

The company said that both its Fluor Daniel construction business and its A.T. Massey low-sulfur coal mining unit posted record operating profits.

Fluor Daniel, the company said, received $12.5 billion in new contracts during the year, a 22% gain. They included a $5-billion contract to lead a private-industry team taking over cleanup of the federal nuclear waste site in Hanford, Wash.; a $4.8-billion contract for development of the first phase of a high-speed commuter train system for the state of Florida, and a $1.6-billion contract to develop a gold mining facility in Indonesia.

For the fourth quarter, Fluor reported a 20% gain in profit to $78.9 million, or 93 cents a share, from $66 million, or 79 cents a share. Revenue climbed 29% to $3.3 billion from $2.6 billion.

Despite the upbeat financial news, Fluor’s common stock dropped $1.50 a share Wednesday to close at $68 in New York Stock Exchange trading.

The company’s earnings-per-share performance met or exceeded most analysts’ expectations. The poor market reception probably was due to disappointment that operating earnings didn’t rise as mush as net profit and that the backlog of orders was up only 7% and didn’t break into double-digit territory, said industry analyst Robert E. Toomey of the Piper Jaffray Inc. brokerage in Minneapolis.

Although down for the day, Fluor’s stock price remained well above its 1995 low of $42.75.