WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Engineering services provider Shaw Group Inc. (SHAW) on Wednesday reported a profit for the first quarter compared to a loss last year, as a slight decline in revenues were offset by higher margins. Looking ahead, the company raised its earnings outlook for fiscal year 2012. The company's shares are gaining almost 6 percent in the pre-market trading.
The Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based technology, engineering, procurement and construction services company's net income for the first quarter was $49.24 million or $0.68 per share compared to loss of $16.00 million or $0.19 per share in the previous-year period.
Excluding the Westinghouse segment, net income for the quarter was $35.0 million or $0.48 per share, compared to loss of $4.5 million or $0.05 per share in the year-ago period. On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings per share of $0.44 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Revenues for the quarter declined 1.3 percent to $1.52 billion from $1.54 billion in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus estimate of $1.51 billion.
Operating income for the quarter was $50.47 million compared to loss of $9.29 million last year. Gross margin increased to 7.9 percent from 4 percent in the year-ago period.
Shaw's current backlog of unfilled orders totals $20.03 billion, compared to $20.02 billion at the end of the prior quarter.
For fiscal year 2012, Shaw raised its outlook for earnings per share, excluding Westinghouse, to a range of $2.05 to $2.15 from the prior range of $2.00 to $2.10. The company said it is updating the earnings guidance to reflect recent share repurchases. However, the company maintained its outlook for revenue in a range of $5.5 billion to $6.0 billion.
Analysts expect the company to earn $2.02 per share for the year on revenues of $5.93 billion.
SHAW closed Tuesday's trading at $22.66, up $0.92 on a volume of 1.44 million shares. In Thursday's pre-market, the stock is trading at $24.00, up $1.34 or 5.91 percent.
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