There's an undeniable trade-off with companies like engineering and construction firm Fluor (NYSE:FLR). On one hand, demand is cyclical, and the cancellation of even one multihundred-million-dollar project would be bad news indeed. On the other, these things take years to build, and upswings in activity can produce several years of powerful revenue growth.
And while the company is very much living in the present -- with strong oil/gas/chemical work and government work tied to FEMA and Iraq -- there's still reason to look ahead with some optimism.
For now, revenue was up 27% in this most recent quarter, led by exceptional strength in the government segment, as well as good growth in the global services and industrial/infrastructure segments. Profitability also got a little better, as the company reported a full point improvement in gross margins and more than 55% growth in segment operating profits.
One attractive aspect of Fluor: It's so well-balanced. Perini (NYSE:PCR) mostly just builds casinos, hotels, convention centers and the like, while McDermott (NYSE:MDR) is mostly about marine construction and power plants. Fluor, though, gets bids for upstream oil and gas facilities, polysilicon expansion projects, power plants, and so on. In fact, Fluor was one of the two companies selected to build TXU's (NYSE:TXU) coal-fired plants.
Is valuation high in this sector? Relative to trailing numbers, at least, the answer pretty much has to be yes. Whether you look at Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE:CBI) on down to Washington Group (NASDAQ:WGII), you don't find a lot of obvious bargains. On the flip side, order books are swelling, and there will be a lot more activity in upstream energy, roads, and power plants in the years to come.
All that said, tread lightly. If you're hearing a sector talked about on financial TV all the time, the odds of finding a bargain are definitely lower. So while I'm not about to underestimate Fluor's ability to post solid growth in the coming years, I do believe that the market has already baked in a lot of those assumptions.
For more constructive Takes:
Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
