Earnings fell at Fluor [FLR] in the fourth quarter, which the engineering and construction company, active in the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex, attributed Tuesday to a legal settlement and the sale of a business.
Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2023, reflected a net loss of $21 million, or $0.12 a share, down from net earnings of $9 million, or $0.01 in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $3.8 billion, up year-over-year from $3.7 billion.
Quarterly segment operating income for the Mission Solutions segment where Fluor coordinates its Department of Defense and DoE joint ventures was $31 million, up from $20 million a year ago, Fluor
said in a press release. Segment revenue was $646 million, up from $509 million in the year-ago period.
For 2023 as a whole, Fluor earnings were $139 million, down from $145 million in 2022. Annual revenue was $15.5 billion, up from $13.7 billion in the prior year.
Mission Solutions reported an operating profit of $116 million in 2023, down from $136 million in 2022, due in part to delays and a cost increase “on a weapons facility project,” according to the release. Fluor did not identify the owner of the project. Full year Mission Solutions revenue of $2.7 billion was up from $2.3 billion a year earlier, Fluor said.
“In 2023, we not only reached but surpassed a critical inflection point on our journey to solidifying our position as a technical solutions leader in the global engineering and construction industry,” said Fluor Chairman and CEO David Constable.
Fluor is currently the lead partner in environmental cleanup joint ventures at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. It also heads the management and operations contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and is an integrated subcontractor to the prime at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.