KBR Clinches Contract From Southern Petrochemical Industries

KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR) recently received a contract to refurbish Southern (NYSE:SO) Petrochemical Industries Corporation’s ammonia plant in Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, India.

Per the contract, KBR will provide an ammonia converter basket, one of its exclusive equipment. The company will use its ammonia technology that offers the lowest energy consumption in the industry, better suited for ammonia producers globally.

KBR has provided License and Basic Engineering Design (LBED) to the plant for reducing energy consumption and increasing capacity in 2017.

Technology Unit to Get a Boost

KBR, a global leader in ammonia technology, has a successful track record of refurbishing ammonia plants worldwide. Currently, the company has projects to revamp over 100 ammonia plants and engineering projects of more than 230 grass roots ammonia plants globally.

The company’s Technology segment, accounting for around 6.3% of total revenues, has been performing well recently, driven by refining and petrochemicals projects in China, India, Africa as well as strong demand. During the third quarter of 2018, the company’s total revenues increased 23.6% year over year on 35% organic growth in the Technology segment.

Moreover, KBR’s backlog level of $13.5 billion as of Sep 30, 2018, highlights its underlying strength. Of the total backlog, about $544 million is booked under the Technology segment, which increased 95.7% from the prior-year level.

The company expects thriving global technology opportunities led by ammonia, refining and olefins projects to persist.

Meanwhile, shares of the company have gained 1.1% in a year against its industry’s 18.6% decline. Additionally, earnings estimates for the current year have increased 4.1% over the past 30 days, reflecting analyst’s optimism over the company’s potential.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

KBR currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

A few other top-ranked stocks in the Construction sector are Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) , Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) and EMCOR Group, Inc. (NYSE:EME) . While Great Lakes sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Altair Engineering and EMCOR carry a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Great Lakes’ 2018 earnings are expected to increase 111%.

Altair Engineering has an expected earnings growth rate of 23.1% for the current year.

EMCOR has a projected earnings growth rate of 20% for the current year.

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