Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
Please consider a small donation if you think this website provides you with relevant information
| Statement |
|---|
| To recap, we delivered another year of significant operating cash flow, strong backlog growth, and made the necessary progress in settling and resolving the various disputed matters in 2023 |
| We made excellent progress on claims and dispute settlements in 2023, which helped us to deliver our record cash flow and reduce our unbilled receivables or costs in excess by 17% or $234 million |
| And as both you and Ron noted, we'll gain strength as the year progresses due to our seasonality |
| Growth really strong in Civil, quite strong in Building as well, and not quite as strong, but still respectably at a respectable level in Specialty |
| The Civil business will continue to grow, particularly as we add new work, and it's very strong with no issues anywhere |
| Good to see the balance sheet continuing to improve and Ron, hope you feel better soon |
| We expect double-digit revenue growth in 2024 as we continue to be in a strong bidding environment |
| We believe that our operating cash flow will again continue to be strong in 2024, in particular, and also in 2025, as we resolve, frankly, the balance of the remaining legacy disputed matters, most of which will be accomplished by the end of this year, and collect a substantial associated cash there too |
| We expect our backlog to grow substantially in 2024 and again in 2025, as we pursue and capture our share of a tremendous volume of available project opportunities, many of which are supported by strong funding that is put in place at the state and local levels, as well as the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed in 2021 for which funding is now flowing |
| Turning now to our results, we had another year of mixed results in 2023, highlighted by record operating cash flow that was nearly 50% better than last year, as well as backlog that grew 28% year-over-year to a $10.2 billion figure |
| We are anticipating significant double-digit revenue growth in 2024, with 80% of which sourced by our existing backlog |
| We are expecting a return to positive earnings in 2024 and significantly higher earnings in 2025, and again in 2026 |
| We believe that our strong cash flow in 2023, continuing solid liquidity to-date in 2024, recent and further anticipated debt reductions and current credit market liquidity will allow us to complete a refinancing transaction by the end of April |
| The strong improvement was driven by certain current year net favorable adjustments as well as higher volume on the projects I mentioned earlier and also the absence of significant prior year unfavorable adjustments |
| Our continued strong cash generation has already enabled us to begin utilizing some of the excess cash generated over the past several months to deleverage our balance sheet, something that we had indicated we had planned to do in last quarter's conference call |
| For the second year in a row, we achieved a record operating cash flow and more impressive is the $308 million that we generated in 2023, was an increase of nearly 50% compared to the prior year record of $207 million in 2022 |
| Our strong operating cash was driven by overall solid collection activities, including collections related to various settlements and dispute resolutions that we concluded in the latter part of 2022 and into 2023 |
| We expect continued solved cash collections in 2024, much of which will be associated with anticipated resolutions of various remaining disputes, and our cash generation should continue to be strong over the next several years as well |
| As I mentioned, our year-end backlog stood at $10.2 billion, up 28% with strong growth largely driven by the award of the $2.95 billion Brooklyn Jail project in New York |
| Our backlog is anticipated to grow this year significantly and next, as we are tracking and expect to capture certainly our share or more of the $32 billion of major near-term opportunities with at best limited competition |
| The revenue improvement across our business was largely attributable to fewer charges in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same quarter of 2022 for judgments and settlements |
| The strong improvement was primarily driven by the absence of prior year unfavorable charges on certain projects in the Northeast and California |
| We believe there will be even significantly higher earnings in 2025 and 2026, as these new contract awards begin to generate the significant revenue associated with design build |
| Increased activities on certain Civil segment projects in British Columbia and California, along with various Building segment projects in California and New York, also contributed to the revenue growth for the fourth quarter of 2023 |
| Building segment revenue was $376 million, up 15% from $327 million last year, and Specialty Contractors segment revenue was $186 million, up 33% compared to $140 million last year |
| Building segment revenue was $1.3 billion, up 5%, with growth driven by increased activities on various projects in California |
| We generated $308 million of operating cash in 2023, compared to $207 million in 2022, with both years setting records as the highest results of any year since the 2008 merger between Tutor-Saliba and Perini Corporation |
| But it's important to note that we believe that we're coming back to a reasonable degree of profitability with years to follow significantly better, because, frankly, there'll be no more litigation and/or disputes to try to settle or to settle for less than what we're entitled to |
| Having paid down the term loan and having the cash available to reduce our bonds, we expect to successfully conclude our refinancing by the end of April |
| Our plan is be profitable in each quarter |
| Statement |
|---|
| To go on top of what Ron said, we did continue to struggle in the Specialty Contractors segment |
| But our earnings were negatively impacted by certain charges associated with these resolutions, as well as some negative court verdicts that were unanticipated |
| The growth in the Civil and Building segment was mostly offset by a 15% decline in the Specialty Contractors segment, with specialties revenue coming in at $694 million for 2023, mainly due to decreased activities on the electrical and mechanical components of a completed transportation project in the Northeast |
| Our earnings in 2023 were challenged due to certain adverse legal judgments or decisions throughout the year, primarily in the Northeast, and write-downs that resulted from the expedited settlement or resolution of various disputed matters |
| Our results in both years were negatively impacted by net unfavorable adjustments on various projects, primarily due to changes in estimates resulting from recent negotiations, settlements, and legal judgments on certain disputed claims and unapproved change orders |
| We were significantly challenged once again in 2023 by charges in the Specialty Contractors segment related to various settlements and negotiations, partly due to our focus on expediting dispute settlements and cash collections in New York, a focus that began in the latter part of 2022 |
| The loss in 2023 was largely attributable to an adverse legal ruling in the first quarter of 2023 on the completed mixed use project in New York that resulted in a non-cash pretax charge of $83.6 million, of which $72.2 million impacted the Building segment and $11.4 million impacted the Specialty Contractors segment, as well as an unfavorable adjustment of $14.6 million in the 2023 fourth quarter on a government building project in Florida due to increased costs associated with an external subcontractor |
| In the Specialty Group, we had continued significant write-downs on the newer job by both our mechanical and electrical subsidiaries |
| We still had losses in two out of the three segments |
| Conversely, by the end of this year, we expect CIE to be reduced dramatically from where it is even now |
| The Specialty Contractors segment posted a loss from construction operations of $24 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to a loss of $86 million in the fourth quarter of last year, as 2023 had fewer unfavorable adjustments than in the prior year |
| The Building segment posted a loss from construction operations $7 million for the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to a loss of $2 million for the fourth quarter last year |
| You can, of course, find further information about the various charges that negatively affected our results in 2023 and 2022 in our 10-K, which was filed today |
| Our consolidated revenue was up slightly in 2023, compared to 2022, still dramatically reduced from our typical years prior to the pandemic |
| The Specialty Contractors segment posted a loss from construction operations of $145 million in 2023 compared to a loss of $168 million in 2022 |
| So there's no question the Building business will go back to very significant profitability, and the Specialty business is simply restricted and continuing to be reduced to where other than Fisk in Texas |
| The larger loss in the fourth quarter of 2023 was primarily due to a current year unfavorable adjustment on a government facility project in Florida, partially offset by improved performance on other projects |
| We reported a reduced loss from construction operations of $115 million in 2023, compared to a $205 million loss in 2022 |
| The reduced loss from construction operations was primarily due to the reduced negative impact of various unfavorable adjustments in 2023 as compared to 2022 |
| Ours got out of control, exacerbated by a two-year hiatus in the courts, thanks to COVID, where our world just stopped as they accumulated and didn't resolve |
Please consider a small donation if you think this website provides you with relevant information