Primoris’ (PRIM) Unit Wins Water Contract Worth $16M

Zacks

Primoris Services Corporation PRIM announced that Cardinal Contractors, a part of its East Construction Services segment, has secured a new water contract with a municipal customer valued at $16 million. The work is slated to start in the second quarter of 2015 and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2016.

Scope of the work entails construction of new pretreatment facilities to improve the quality and efficiency of the existing membrane filtration system as well as installation of a new parallel membrane filtration system. It also includes improvements to the raw water delivery and chemical feed systems. These modifications will take the facility from its current capacity of 6.0 million gallons per day (MGD) to approximately 12.0 MGD of clean potable water placed into the system for the residents and business of Abilene.

Primoris witnessed a dismal fourth-quarter 2014 with decline in earnings and revenues. Reduction in revenues was mainly due to decreased sales in the West Construction Services segment. 2014 revenues also decreased year over year, primarily at the ARB Underground division due to reduced revenues from traditional MSA customers and decline of one-time projects. However, Primoris remains optimistic about large capital replacement programs and integrity plans which will aid growth in the utility market and in turn assist growth in revenues.

During the next four quarters, Primoris is expected to realize revenues of around 40% from the East Construction Services segment backlog, about 100% from the West Construction Services segment backlog and 95% from the Engineering segment.

Primoris will also benefit from inorganic growth as the company has recently acquired the assets of Aevenia, a subsidiary of Otter Tail Corp. OTTR, an energy and electrical construction company for $23 million. The buyout will help in widening Primoris’ existing offerings and expanding into new geographies in the Midwest.

Though increasingly stringent regulatory and environmental requirements for infrastructure improvements and significant reduction in oil prices in the last half of 2014 have created uncertainty, Primoris believes that its financial and operational capabilities will meet the short-term challenges.

Dallas, TX-based Primoris is a specialty contractor and infrastructure company that serves diverse-end markets. The company also provides a wide range of construction, fabrication, maintenance, replacement, water and wastewater as well as engineering services to major public utilities, petrochemical companies, energy companies, municipalities and other customers.

Primoris currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). Stocks to consider in the sector are Dycom Industries Inc. DY and Quanex Building Products Corp. NX, both carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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