BWX Technologies on Monday reported $428.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2017, up by 17 percent from $364.8 million in the same quarter last year, and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) operating income of $83.2 million, spiking 95 percent year over year from $42.6 million.
Earnings per share were reported at $0.55 in the quarter, up from $0.47 GAAP and $0.45 non-GAAP earnings per share the same time last year.
The Lynchburg, Va.-based company is the sole provider of nuclear fuel to the U.S. Navy and provides services for a number of Department of Energy facilities.
The company’s Nuclear Operations Group – the business segment that manufactures naval nuclear reactors – reported a 10 percent increase in revenue, to $325.1 million, which it attributed to “increased activity in component manufacturing as well as our naval nuclear fuel and downblending operations.” Operating income for the segment was $73.2 million, up from $64.9 million during the same quarter last year.
The Nuclear Services Group, which includes the previous Technical Services segment that contracts with the Energy Department, reported quarterly revenue of $27.9 million, down from $34 million last year, “primarily due to the quarterly timing of maintenance outages in the commercial U.S. nuclear utility market,” the company said. Operating income for the segment fell from $5.8 million to $0.7 million, for the same reason.
“NSG segment revenues were also slightly impacted by decline in specialty engineering work related to new nuclear plant designs, both of which were partially offset by higher activity at our Naval Reactor decommissioning/decontamination and NASA support services projects,” BWXT said.
Additionally, BWXT President and CEO Rex Geveden said on a Tuesday earnings call that “Department of Energy management and operations contract awards have been delayed, likely due to the presidential transition.”
Company spokesman Jud Simmons said by email that Geveden was referring to the overall impact of the transition on the DOE environment: “From a business standpoint, that impacts us two ways – for contracts where we are on the incumbent team, those contracts may get extended, and we would continue our work there. For contracts on which we are bidding, that extends our timeline for potential wins and growth in our business.”
BWXT is one of the partners in Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste management prime for DOE’S Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The department last week extended the contract by six months, to Dec. 31, to give it more time to award the next contract for the work. BWXT is reportedly teaming with fellow Savannah River Remediation partner Bechtel to secure the follow-on deal.
Among its other DOE contracts, BWXT has teamed with Fluor for cleanup of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio; it is a partner in Los Alamos National Security, the management and operations contractor for the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico; and in 2016 a subsidiary received a $241.5 million deal to downblend 10.4 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade uranium for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
BWXT said it expects its full-year 2017 earnings per share to be between $1.85 and $1.95.
