A joint venture (JV) between Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. JEC and Huitt-Zollars, namely Jacobs/Huitt-Zollars, has recently won a contract to carry out engineering and architectural services for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The $24 million firm-fixed-price contract was awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco, CA. The JV is scheduled to complete work through Aug 20, 2023.
Other Contract Wins
Last month, Jacobs received a two-year renewal contract from Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (“SATORP”) to render general engineering services (“GES”) at SATORP’s Jubail Industrial City II facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Again, earlier in August, Jacobs won an engineering services contract for Keyera's Wapiti Gas Plant Phase Two expansion. The second phase covers an additional processing of 150 million cubic feet of sour gas per day to the plant (currently under construction) near Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada (Read more: Jacobs Wins Contract for Wapiti Gas Plant Expansion).
Jacobs has been performing quite well, generating higher revenues courtesy of ongoing contract wins, increased focus on high-value businesses and efficient project execution. Backlog at the end of fiscal third quarter was $27.2 billion, increasing 47% year over year on a reported basis and 8% on a pro-forma basis, banking on solid contributions from field services, driven by an increase in major water infrastructure and life sciences design-build projects.
Share Price Performance
Shares of Jacobs, a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company, have broadly outperformed the industry so far this year. Its shares have gained 10.2% in the said time frame against its industry’s decline of 5.9%. The outperformance was backed by a solid earnings surprise history, beating the consensus mark in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average of 15.38%.
While earnings estimates for fiscal 2018 have moved 2.6% north over the past 30 days, the same was revised 4.4% higher for the next fiscal. The company’s earnings per share for fiscal 2018 and 2019 are expected to grow 35.2% and 19.7%, respectively. Notably, Jacobs currently flaunts a VGM Score of B.
Other Stocks to Consider
Other top-ranked stocks from the same sector include Comfort Systems USA, Inc. FIX, Gates Industrial Corporation plc GTES and KBR, Inc. KBR. While Comfort Systems sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Gates Industrial and KBR both carry a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Comfort Systems’ earnings surpassed the consensus estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, with an average positive surprise of 11.2%.
Earnings for Gates Industrial are expected to increase 42.2% for 2018.
KBR surpassed earnings estimates in three of the past four quarters, resulting in an average positive surprise of 12.26%.
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