Tutor Reports Big Quarter but Stock Hammered

Tutor Perini Corp. handily beat Wall Street expectations on earnings and revenue for the third quarter, but the Sylmar construction firm saw its share price drop.Earnings were released after the stock markets closed. Tutor’s stock may have declined in sympathy with other construction companies that expected a “blue wave” in Tuesday’s election, which could have prompted a large infrastructure package, said Brent Thielman, an analyst with D.A. Davidson Cos.“You see a lot of pressure in the infrastructure construction related names, including Tutor Perini,” Thielman said. Thielman said a lot of the publicly traded construction companies had seen healthy moves in the last month or so based on the notion that Democrats would sweep into power in Washington. “I guess the perception is that it will take longer,” Thielman said of a large infrastructure package being approved.The company on Wednesday reported net income of $49.3 million (72 cents a share) for the quarter ending Sept. 30, compared with net income of $26.7 million (38 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased by 21 percent to $1.4 billion. Analysts on average expected earnings of 65 cents on revenue of $1.3 billion, according to Thomson Financial Network. Shares in Tutor Perini (TPC) closed down 86 cents, or almost 6 percent, to $13.69 on the New York Stock Exchange, on a day when the major markets closed up.Other construction companies were also hammered on share price today, including AECOM, a multinational engineering firm based in Los Angeles, whose stock price went down by 5.5 percent, and Granite Construction Inc., in Watsonville, whose share price declined by 7.4 percent. Ron Tutor, the chief executive, called the third quarter results outstanding and that its civil and building business units performed well and delivered solid operating results.“The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lessened in the third quarter and are not materially impacting our business at this time, though we will continue to monitor developments and adjust our operations as necessary,” Tutor said in a statement.