Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the nuclear services and manufacturing company attributed largely to its government operations.
Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $61 million or $0.67 per share up from $59.1 million, or $0.64 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Quarterly revenue was $568.4 million, up year-over-year from $530.7 million, the company said in a Monday press release.
Quarterly segment operating income for the Government Operations segment was $90.6 million, up from $72.2 million a year ago. Segment revenue was $459.9 million up from $431.8 million in the year-ago period.
A BWXT-led team chosen for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, potentially worth $45 billion, is the same trio of partners selected a year ago for the big liquid-waste cleanup contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The partners for both teams are BWXT, Amentum and Fluor, BWXT CEO Rex Geveden said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
Although no losing bidder had announced a protest of the Hanford award by the time BWXT published its latest earnings report, Geveden did not rule one out.
“Who can say how this would come out,” Geveden said of a potential protest. “It’s not uncommon for contracts on this scale to go through protest periods,” which can delay transition by a quarter or more, the CEO said Monday evening on a conference call with investors.
Geveden said the combination of companies in the new Hanford team made him optimistic about the joint venture withstanding a protest, if there is one. Three years ago, another BWXT-led group won what was then a $13-billion contract for management of Hanford’s 177 underground radioactive tanks.
