(RTTNews) - Construction and facilities services provider Emcor Group, Inc. (EME: News ) reported Thursday a decline in third-quarter profit, reflecting a sharp decrease in revenues. On a per share basis, earnings came in above analysts' estimate by 7 cents. The company also raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2009 to a range better than the Street view.

For the third quarter, net income attributable to Emcor dropped to $39.98 million or $0.59 per share from $48.64 million or $0.72 per share in the previous year. On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.52 per share for the third quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the period decreased to $1.37 billion from $1.72 billion in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. Seven analysts were expecting revenue of $1.40 billion.

Emcor's operating income came down to $67.26 million from $78.64 million, and gross profit reduced to $205.24 million from $224.35 million in the corresponding quarter of the past year. As a percentage of revenues, operating income rose to 4.9% from 4.6% in the third quarter last year.

Frank MacInnis, chief executive of Emcor Group, said, "Our results for the period were driven by record gross and operating margins due to our focus on execution and project management. This same operational focus allowed us to convert our outstanding work into cash, which strengthened what was already a strong and highly liquid balance sheet."
Contract backlog as of September 30, 2009 was $3.39 billion, down from $4.42 billion a year ago, chiefly due to lower contract awards in the hospitality/gaming sectors and in the commercial sector.

For the nine-month period, net income attributable to Emcor decreased marginally to $121.57 million or $1.85 per share from $121.92 million or $0.87 per share in fiscal 2008. Revenues declined to $4.19 billion from $5.10 billion in the same period last year.

Looking forward to the full year, the company raised its earnings guidance to a range of $2.20 to $2.35 a share from its prior forecast of $2.00 to $2.20 per share. Revenues for the year are now expected to range between $5.5 billion and $5.6 billion compared with the earlier range of $5.5 billion - $5.7 billion. Analysts estimate earnings of $2.17 per share and revenues of $5.60 billion for fiscal 2009.

EME is currently trading at $24.49, up $2.17 or 9.72%, on the NYSE.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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