Fluor Profit of 81 Cents a Share Beats Projections

Fluor Corp. posted third-quarter earnings Wednesday that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, due in part to sizable engineering contracts and a stock repurchase plan.

The Irvine-based engineering construction company reported net income of $62.4 million, or 81 cents a diluted share, compared with $66.2 million or 79 cents a year ago. The First Call Corp. analysts’ consensus was 70 cents a share for the latest quarter.

Revenue was $3.5 billion, compared with $3.7 billion a year ago.

Fluor shares surged $3.88 to close at $44.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company bought back about 2.4 million shares in the third quarter and reduced shares outstanding to 76.5 million, a 9% decrease compared with a year ago. That added about 6 cents a share to third-quarter earnings.

A.T. Massey, Fluor’s low-sulfur coal investment, increased its operating profit by 13% to $44 million, compared with the same period a year ago.

Strengthening U.S. steam coal market conditions allowed Massey to optimize the mix of quality grades in its steam coal sales and increase margins.

“Overall, Fluor’s performance is showing substantial improvement over last year’s disappointing results,” Chairman and Chief Executive Phil Carroll said in a statement.

Carroll said Fluor had been successful in shifting its focus to more attractive markets, including both North and South America, after having de-emphasized the Asian markets.

Operating profit for its Fluor Daniel division was $65 million, compared with $71 million a year ago.

The backlog of orders for construction and engineering services was $13.7 billion, compared with $15.3 billion a year ago.

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