Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (NYSE:J). J has received a contract from National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (“NICDC”) to develop smart city masterplans for three greenfield industrial developments in South India. This will diversify the Indian economy and deliver long-term economic growth.
Per the deal, Jacobs will provide master planning and preliminary engineering design services to remodel industrial cities in India. Its work will support NICDC's vision for a global manufacturing and investment destination transformed for the 21st century to life using revolutionary technology.
Moreover, Jacobs will deliver data-driven generative designs, advanced visualization techniques and smartly integrated city infrastructure with the help of latest digital delivery as well as modelling tools. It will also provide the economic feasibility assessment to help shape environmentally and economically resilient developments long into the future.
One of these three greenfield developments will be situated in Palakkad, Kerala and the other two will be located in Ponneri and Dharmapuri-Salem in Tamil Nadu. These smart cities are expected to fuel economic and socio-economic development in the region by attracting businesses manufacturing high-value products with excellent export potential.
Notably, Jacobs’s People & Places Solutions unit has been working with NICDC in India for the past 12 years. The recent work will combine its expertise with advanced digital and technology to set the new standard of excellence for industrial developments.
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Solid Project Execution: A Boon
Efficient project execution has been one of the main characteristics driving Jacobs’ performance over the last few quarters. The company’s ongoing contract wins are a testimony to the fact. For the fiscal second quarter, it reported a backlog of $15.5 billion, up 9.6% year over year. This reflects persistent solid demand for Jacobs' consulting services.
The company’s overall 18-month qualified new business pipeline of more than $30 billion remains robust. Jacobs is benefiting from well-funded government programs and cyber, U.S. Department of Defense or DoD, mission-IT, space, nuclear as well as 5G-related projects. In fact, it has worked for more than 10 years with Health Infrastructure to design world-leading, technology-forward and award-winning healthcare facilities for local communities.
Jacobs’ shares have gained 2.1% over the past three months compared with the industry’s 3.8% growth. Nonetheless, earnings estimates for 2021 have moved 5.2% upward in the past 60 days, depicting analysts’ optimism regarding the company’s growth potential.
Zacks Rank
Jacobs — which shares space with Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR), Inc. PWR, AECOM ACM and KBR (NYSE:KBR), Inc. KBR in the Zacks Engineering - R and D Services industry — currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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