Amentum execs bank on nuclear, defense growth

Earnings rose at Amentum, Chantilly, Va., during the past quarter, which the company attributed in part to the White House and congress prioritizing nuclear power and national defense.  

Net earnings for the quarter ended June 27 were $10 million, or $0.04 a share, up from a $26 million loss, or a loss of $(0.29) a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $3.6 billion up year-over-year from $2.1 billion.

That is according to the earnings press release out Wednesday morning for Amentum’s third quarter after merging with the government contracting and cyber-intelligence wings of Dallas-based Jacobs. Following the combination, Amentum is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Quarterly segment operating revenue for the Global Engineering Solutions segment, where Amentum oversees much of its Department of Energy and Department of Defense-related work, was $2.1 billion, down from $2.2 billion.

“It’s really like Amentum was custom-built for this era,” CEO John Heller said during the Wednesday conference call with Wall Street analysts. Amentum has long been a heavyweight in U.S. nuclear remediation and decommissioning and has become embedded in nuclear power and cleanup in Europe, he said during the call.

“Nuclear is really starting to pick up,” both internationally and in the United States, Heller said. This is partly due to rising power demand driven by data needs and artificial intelligence along with climate concerns and President Donald Trump’s pro-nuclear executive orders issued in May.

In its earnings presentation, Amentum said it is benefitting from Trump administration priorities such as the planned “Golden Dome” missile defense system and more manned NASA launches.

Amentum’s $4-billion United States Space Force contract with a 10-year ordering period is currently under a bid protest, company executives noted during the call.

Meanwhile, Amentum is part of a team with BWX Technologies that  landed an Atomic Energy of Canada Limited contract with a six-year base period up to a total of 20 years. The deal is worth (C) $1.2 billion or (U.S.) $873 million annually, according to the earnings report.