BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) said Monday its adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2016 rose 11 cents year over year, to 44 cents a share , with revenue in the period rising 9 percent to about $365 million.
On a nonadjusted basis, the now-nuclear-only company posted first-quarter earnings of 46 cents per share, up from 32 cents in the 2015 quarter. That includes a benefit of 2 cents per share related to certain net gains recognized in the quarter, the company said in a press release.
At BWXT’s Nuclear Operations segment, which has a virtual monopoly to supply equipment for the U.S. Navy via the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), operating income rose to $64.9 million in the first quarter from $68 million in 2015, “primarily due to a $3.0 million benefit from the settlement of a property-related insurance claim that was recorded in the first quarter of 2015,” the company said. Segment revenue rose to $295.3 million from $284.4 million in 2015.
In the Technical Services segment, which in partnerships with other major DOE contractors manages operations of active U.S. government facilities and cleanup of legacy waste across the department’s weapons complex, quarterly operating income rose to $5.4 million from $1.7 million a year ago. Segment revenue rose to $22.5 million in the first quarter of 2016 from $18.6 million a year ago “primarily due to higher activity at our Naval Reactor decommissioning and decontamination project,” the company stated.
Meanwhile, “an increase in nuclear services work in both the United States and Canada” helped bump up revenue at the commercially focused Nuclear Energy segment to $7.4 million in the first quarter of 2016 — a big improvement over the $3.7 million quarterly loss a year ago. Segment revenue in the quarter shot up 43 percent to $47.3 million in 2016 from $33.0 million in 2015.
Meanwhile, BWXT took no charge in the quarter related to a forfeiture of fees by the Los Alamos National Security (LANS) conglomerate of which it is a part. LANS, which this week netted a one-year extension on its prime contract to manage and operate the Los Alamos National Laboratory, agreed to the fee forfeiture in 2015 as part of what became a roughly $70 million settlement arrangement between DOE and New Mexico over the lab’s role in the 2014 underground radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
At one point, BWXT expected it would pay a share of that fee forfeiture that would not be material to its first earnings. However, the company apparently got off the hook, a BWXT spokesperson said Friday
“At one point, as disclosed during part of 2015, we thought there would be an immaterial capital contribution to LANS,” the spokesperson said. “That disclosure was removed as part of our 12/31/15 financial statement filings. Accordingly, the fee repayment was between LANS and NNSA to settle the matter.”
BWXT is a junior partner in LANS, with one of the company’s subsidiaries accounting for 13 percent of the joint venture. Bechtel National of San Francisco and the University of California are the senior partners in LANS.
