BWXT has strong quarter, sees ‘robust’ opportunities from Oak Ridge land purchase

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the company partly attributed to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s intent to award it a sole source contract for an advanced uranium enrichment project.

“We had another quarter of strong commercial backlog growth and see robust opportunities for growth in our government markets, highlighted by our recent land purchase to support the National Nuclear Security Administration’s [NNSA] domestic uranium enrichment program,” Rex Geveden, CEO of BWX Technologies (BWXT), said in the company’s earnings statement.

NNSA announced in a sole-source intention notice on databases FedConnect and sam.gov April 9 that BWXT would likely be awarded a sole source contract for a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Pilot Plant. The notice said the company would design, license, construct and operate a uranium enrichment pilot plant facility to demonstrate “production readiness” of Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) technology to establish a supply of low-enriched uranium, before transitioning to highly enriched uranium production in the future to support naval nuclear propulsion fuel production.

For this purpose, BWXT acquired 97 acres of land in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Geveden called this a “unique value proposition in energy security” in a conference call with investors.

Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $75.5 million, or $0.82 a share, up 10% from $68.5 million, or $0.75 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $682.3 million, up 13% year-over-year from $604 million in 2024.

Quarterly segment operating income for the government operations segment, which handles government contracting for the NNSA and other DOE sites, was $97.7 million, up from $85.7 million a year ago. Segment revenue was $555.3 million, up from $487.1 million in the year-ago period.

BWXT has a virtual monopoly on the naval-nuclear reactors used in U.S. naval warships and submarines, including the Virginia-class submarines that will be sold to Australia as part of the trilateral AUKUS deal among Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. 

When an investor asked about President Donald Trump’s announcement for an Office of Shipbuilding in the executive branch and how that would affect BWXT, Geveden said “it’s too early to tell,” but “I like the White House’s posture” on “nuclear shipbuilding specifically.” He also said that Australia’s $500 million down payment toward the $3 billion promised to the U.S. for AUKUS has “started to trickle through” into the company’s capital.

The company also mentioned a win of some Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program contracts worth $2.1 billion total to manufacture naval nuclear reactor components and procure materials for Columbia and Virginia-class submarines.