Babcock & Wilcox Shares Plunge 66 Percent

8/10/17

By Chris Roush, NC BIZ News

Steam boiler and turbine manufacturer Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc. saw its stock price fall by more than 66 percent after it reported earnings and revenue for the second quarter that badly missed projections.

The Charlotte-based company reported a loss of $144.9 million, or $3.06 per share, compared to a loss of $72.6 million, or $1.25 per share, in the second quarter a year ago. The company was expected to earn 32 cents per share.

The company took a $115.2 million charge in its renewable business during the quarter due to increased estimated costs to complete six projects in backlog, the result of lower-than-forecasted productivity and schedule delays.

Revenue for the quarter was $349.8 million, down 8.7 percent from the $383.2 million in revenue for the second quarter a year ago and well below analyst estimates of $458.4 million.

“As we advanced engineering, and re-estimated overall productivity levels on six new-build projects in the renewable segment, late in the quarter we concluded we would not hit our cost and schedule targets,” said Chief Executive Officer E. James Ferland in a statement.

Babcock & Wilcox shares fell $6.48, or 66.5 percent, to $3.27 in Thursday afternoon trading.

Revenues for the company’s power segment decreased 18.4 percent to $213.8 million compared to $261.8 million in the prior year period due to lower construction activity.

The company also projected revenue for 2017 would be between $1.575 billion and $1.675 billion, below its previous estimate of $1.8 billion.

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