Jacobs Engineering Group shares soar 7.5% on takeover speculation

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Pasadena saw its shares record their largest daily gains in a year Friday, fueled by on-air speculation from cable business news channel CNBC that the firm could be taken over by private equity investors.

Shares in the company closed at $47.61, up $3.33, or 7.5%. Amid heavy trading of nearly 10 million shares -- up nearly fivefold from a day earlier -- the stock hit a high of $48.28 in intraday trading, the highest per-share price since April 2, 2009.

Jacobs is the country’s second-largest publicly traded industrial engineering firm. The company works on projects in a wide variety of industries, including energy, infrastructure and biotechnology.

Jeff Windau, an analyst for Edward Jones and Co., said the wave of speculative investors chasing after the TV rumors caught him and other industry watchers by surprise.

“We have not heard any specific information out there that there is a deal in the works at all,” Windau said.

Jacobs couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

But taking the company private could be good news for both the firm and investors. It’s been a tough year for engineering firms such as Jacobs, which have seen the number of new projects dwindle in the recession.

As a result, public firms in this sector have underperformed on the stock market, prompting investors to pressure these companies to cut costs to bolster profits.

If Jacobs were to go private, it could “make different decisions, decisions with an eye toward your long-term goals, because you don’t have to worry about quarterly earnings reports in the same way,” Windau said.

nathan.olivarezgiles

@latimes.com