Net earnings fell drastically for Parsons, Chantilly, Va., after a big tax hit in its first quarter, but the federal contractor on Wednesday reported record revenue and healthy core operations.
Parsons posted a net loss of about $107 million, or $1.01 a share, for the quarter ended March 31, down from earnings of roughly $25.5 million, or $0.23 a share, in the year-ago quarter, according to a Wednesday press release. Quarterly revenue was about $1.5 billion, up from almost $1.2 billion a year ago.
Parsons took a roughly $214-million tax hit in the quarter after it bought back convertible notes, debt that can be turned into stock, at a higher price than it sold them for, according to its latest earnings release.
Without that big charge, adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization, Parsons’ measure of the health of its core operations, was roughly $141 million, up significantly from about $90 million a year ago.
“Looking forward, I am excited about our business given the ample tailwinds we have… that will enable us to continue to make accretive acquisitions to drive future revenue growth and margin expansion,” Carey Smith, CEO of Parsons, said on a conference call with investors.
In April, Parsons was one of two companies awarded a contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence. Alongside this $1 billion contract, Parsons also received a $21 million contract with NNSA in January to support construction management at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Outside of the NNSA, Parsons is part of Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, a Leidos-led joint venture in Washington State that faces a lawsuit based on allegations of overbilling. The contractor asked that the Department of Justice drop the lawsuit.
