Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) has signed a contract with Vectren Energy Delivery of Indiana – South, a subsidiary of Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) . Per the contract, Vectren will install Itron’s OpenWay Riva IoT solution throughout its South territory to modernize the energy grid in the region.
Notably, Vectren provides energy delivery services to 250,000 electricity and gas customers in Southwest Indiana. The company offers safe and reliable energy services and innovative solutions to customers.
Per the project, Vectren will also leverage Itron Total Outcomes, which provides cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. Thus, Itron’s solutions will provide Vectren a highly secure and resilient multi-application network infrastructure, and technology platform which will assist customers to better manage their energy consumption and costs.
Since the end of third-quarter 2017, Itron has been awarded several contracts. In the Water segment, the company has been awarded contracts subsequent to the end of the quarter, including SANEPAR in Brazil, and contracts in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Malta. The company also recently extended its contract with Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative by three years to provide pay-for-performance demand-response solution.
On the back of the above-mentioned contracts, the company estimates significant sequential increase in bookings for fourth-quarter 2017, which will likely result in a book-to-bill ratio greater than 1:1. Moreover, Itron is poised to gain from the OpenWay Riva smart solutions, increase in bookings and strategic acquisitions.
Share Price Performance
In the past year, Itron has underperformed the industry it belongs to partly due to delays in Water projects. The company’s shares have gained around 7.7% compared with 46.9% growth recorded by the industry.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Itron currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Better-ranked stocks in the same industry are Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) and AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) . While Fortive sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), AMETEK carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Fortive has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10.2%. Its shares have rallied 36.1%, year to date.
AMETEK has a long-term earnings growth rate of 11.9%. The stock has rallied 49.1% in the year so far.
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