Energy Department contractor BWX Technologies took in $501 million of revenue during the fourth quarter of 2019, a 5% uptick over $478 million a year earlier.
In addition, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company reported late Monday that revenue of nearly $1.9 billion for the 12 months ended Dec. 31 set a new record and represented a 5% increase from $1.8 billion during 2018.
Those numbers were good for $244 in net income for 2019, or $2.55 per diluted share, beating 2018’s net income of $227 million, or $2.27 per diluted share. Quarterly net income was $61.4 million, or $0.64 per diluted share, up from $21.9 million, or $0.22 per diluted share.
“We had an exceptionally strong finish to 2019 that resulted in new highs in revenue, earnings and backlog for the year,” BWXT President and CEO Rex Geveden said in the earnings press release. The company’s Navy business was singled out.
The company’s focus in 2020 will be continued capitalization of its Navy franchise while ramping up production on the nuclear propulsion system for the Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. BWXT also intends to increase its capital investment in its moly-99 production line, the CEO added.
The BWXT Nuclear Services Group, which includes the company’s work for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons complex, reported operating income of $5.6 million for the quarter. That was down from $9.2 million a year earlier, chiefly because of lower contract income, according to the release. The segment reported full-year operating income of $14.2 million, dropping $6.1 million from 2018’s $20.3 million due largely because of contract completions and other factors.
Recently, the Energy Department announced its intent to retain the Fluor-BWXT remediation team at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio up to two years beyond the current March 2021 expiration of their contract, Geveden said during a Tuesday morning earnings call.
The Nuclear Operations Group (NOG), which produces naval nuclear reactor components and other equipment for the Navy and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), earned about $72 million income for the quarter, down from $91 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. Its overall 2019 income was $298 million, compared to $271 million in 2019.
The Nuclear Power Group reported $17.3 million in income for the quarter, improving on the $13.6 million reported for the last quarter of 2018. Annual income rose to $53.8 million from 2018’s $52.3 million.
BWXT earnings per share for 2020 could grow to $2.80 per share from $2.62 in 2019, the company said.
Separately, a spokesperson for the NNSA said the semiautonomous DOE nuclear weapons agency is still negotiating a deal for BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services to purify enriched uranium for U.S. weapons programs starting in the early part of this decade.
The NNSA last summer announced its intent to award a sole-source uranium purification contract to Nuclear Fuel Services. Around 2023, the agency plans to shut down existing uranium purification systems in Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. NNSA plans to replace Building 9212 by December 2025 with the under-construction Uranium Processing Facility.
A Nuclear Fuel Services purification contract would give the NNSA a hedge against running out of uranium metal if there are problems making the swap on time.
