L.B. Foster Company FSTR recorded fourth-quarter 2024 loss of 2 cents per share, narrower than a loss of 4 cents per share a year ago. The Zacks Consensus Estimate was earnings of 29 cents per share.
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The company logged revenues of $128.2 million for the quarter, down around 5% year over year. It missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $133.2 million. Sales fell on lower volumes in the Steel Products business unit, including the impact from the discontinued bridge grid deck product line.
New orders were roughly $107.2 million in the reported quarter, up around 2% year over year, driven by strong orders in the protective pipe coatings business.
L.B. Foster Company Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
L.B. Foster Company price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | L.B. Foster Company Quote
FSTR’s Segment Highlights
Sales from the Rail, Technologies, and Services segment rose 14% year over year in the reported quarter to $79.2 million. The upside was driven by increased sales volumes in the Rail Products business unit.
Infrastructure Solutions segment sales were $49 million, down roughly 25% year over year. The decline was due to lower sales in steel products, impacted by soft end-market conditions.
FSTR’s FY24 Results
Earnings (as reported) for full-year 2024 were $3.89 per share, up from 13 cents a year ago. Sales fell around 2% year over year to roughly $530.8 million. The decline in sales was mainly due to divestitures and product line exits.
L.B. Foster’s Financials
L.B. Foster ended 2024 with cash and cash equivalents of around $2.5 million, down around 4% year over year . Long-term debt was roughly $46.8 million, down roughly 15% from the prior year.
Cash flow from operations was $24.3 million for the fourth quarter.
FSTR’s Outlook
FSTR sees adjusted EBITDA in the range of $42-$48 million for 2025. It expects 2025 net sales in the band of $540-$580 million.
Free cash flow is projected in the range of between $20 million and $30 million for the year. Capital expenditures are expected to account for roughly 2% of sales.
FSTR’s board has authorized a new $40 million share repurchase program. The new authorization replaces the earlier $15 million share buyback authorization, which expired at the end of February 2025.
FSTR Stock’s Price Performance
L.B. Foster’s shares are down 16% year to date compared with the Zacks Steel Producers industry’s 12.2% rise.
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FSTR’s Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks
FSTR currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Better-ranked stocks in the Basic Materials space are Denison Mines Corp. DNN, Gold Royalty Corp. GROY and Orla Mining Ltd. ORLA, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Denison Mines is expected to release fourth-quarter results on March 6. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DNN’s fourth-quarter is pegged at a loss of a penny per share. DNN has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 75%, on average.
Gold Royalty is slated to release fourth-quarter results on March 19. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GROY’s fourth-quarter is pegged at a loss of a penny per share. GROY beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, with the average earnings surprise being 125%.
Orla Mining is slated to report fourth-quarter results on March 18. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at 7 cents. ORLA beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters while missing once and meeting on the other occasion, with the average earnings surprise being 97.9%.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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