Broadwind reports Q4 EPS (4c), consensus (7c)

Reports Q4 revenue $33.6M, consensus $31.9M. “While customer project activity remained below prior year levels during the fourth quarter, primarily due to lower activity within our wind and oil/gas markets, new orders increased to the highest level in nearly two years, resulting in a book-to-bill of 1.1x in the period,” stated Eric Blashford, CEO. “We expect that a combination of increased order intake and recent cost-saving measures will enhance our operating leverage over the coming year, consistent with our strategic focus on profitable growth. Total orders increased 85% in the fourth quarter versus the prior year period, supported by demand growth across nearly every customer end-market. Orders within our industrial end-markets increased by more than 300% in the fourth quarter, while wind orders doubled as compared to the prior year period. While we expect our oil/gas markets to remain soft in the near-term, we anticipate ratable improvements in order activity across our diverse end-markets as we move through 2025. Within our Heavy Fabrications segment, we received our first substantial order for large fabrications serving the hydroelectric market during the fourth quarter. Within our Gearing segment, we’ve continued to gain traction with new customers within the aeroderivative turbine and medical technology markets where our precision machining expertise is in high demand. Natural gas turbine demand remained very strong in the fourth quarter, which continued to benefit our Industrial Solutions segment, which generated record orders and backlog in the period. We remain highly focused on asset optimization, particularly with respect to utilization rates across our manufacturing system,” continued Blashford. “Recent order growth is expected to support a meaningful uplift in plant utilization in 2025, well above the levels experienced this past year. As order rates continue to recover, and backlog conversion accelerates, we intend to realize improved fixed-cost absorption across the Company during 2025. On a full-year basis, we successfully advanced our strategic priorities during a period of softer demand, culminating in another year of profitability. Our 100% U.S. manufacturing footprint, highly skilled domestic workforce, and depth of experience producing large-scale, technical fabrications remain highly valued competitive advantages, particularly in a policy environment that is expected to favor domestic manufacturers. Looking ahead, we remain focused on further expanding our commercial focus across high-value, growing end-markets, further improving our operational efficiency and asset utilization, while selectively deploying capital toward high-return intellectual property and manufacturing capabilities valued by our customers. At the end of the fourth quarter, we had $33 million of available cash and liquidity to support our operations, which includes an advanced payment negotiated with a major customer late in the year,. As of December 31, 2024, our net leverage was 0.6x, well within our target range of at or below 2.0x.”