Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of engineering and construction company Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) climbed 11% today after its quarterly results and outlook impressed Wall Street.
So what: The stock has been volatile over the past year on concerns over weak global demand, but today's wide Q2 earnings beat -- adjusted EPS of $0.54 versus the consensus of $0.33 -- coupled with upbeat guidance naturally eases some of that worry. While revenue in the quarter slipped 8%, operating margins in both its global engineering and construction and global power segments increased nicely over the year-ago period, giving analysts plenty of good vibes about its profitability going forward.
Now what: Don't expect the operating momentum to slow anytime soon. "We are raising our full-year earnings guidance," said CEO Kent Masters. "We now expect our full-year 2013 adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations to be moderately above $1.54, due in part to the company's strong performance in the second quarter of 2013." Of course, with the stock flirting with 52-week highs and trading at a P/E around 25, much of that bullishness might already be baked into the price.
