Fluor, Irving, Texas, reported a dip in total revenue for the 2020 third quarter, even as its government sector enjoyed higher profits in the three months ended Sept. 30.
Fluor’s third-quarter revenue was $3.8 billion, down from $4.6 billion during the same quarter in 2019, according to the release. Net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Fluor was $19 million during the quarter or $0.14 per share, far better than the loss of $767 million loss or a negative $5.47 per share during the third quarter of 2019.
Perhaps most significantly about the earnings press release issued Thursday morning is that it marks a sort of return to normalcy for the company, which has been scrutinized over much of the past year by the Securities & Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for problems with previous financial filings.
Fluor’s Government segment, which quarterbacks efforts to win and maintain major management and operations contracts for Department of Energy nuclear-weapon sites, reported profit of $26 million in the third quarter of 2020, up from $22 million in the third quarter of 2019. Government revenue was $754 million in the third quarter, which beats the $718 million from the year-ago period.
“We are very well positioned in the DOE space,” Fluor CEO Carlos Hernandez said during an earnings call with Wall Street investors Thursday morning. He did not cite specific contracts.
“With today’s 10-Q filing, Fluor is now current with its financials,” said Hernandez, who will be replaced Jan. 1 by David Constable, a member of the company’s board of directors. “While 2020 has provided a lot of unexpected challenges for our business, we are pleased to report that for the third consecutive quarter, we have had no material project execution charges,” Hernandez said on the call.
Company-wide, Fluor did report $297 million in “impairment” expenses in the quarter, much of it connected with the world-wide coronavirus pandemic, according to its 10-Q financial report.
“Certain of our businesses have been adversely affected by the economic impacts of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the steep decline in commodity prices that occurred in the first quarter of 2020,” Fluor said in the filing. “These events have caused significant uncertainty, economic volatility and disruption, which have impacted and may continue to impact our operations.”
Fluor is a member of the Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co., which has a new remediation contract at the DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state. That team takes over from the current contractor, Jacobs subsidiary CH2M on Jan. 24. The Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has the current $14-billion operations and management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Fluor is also an integrated subcontractor with Triad National Security, the management and operations contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2018.
