Knife River reports Q2 EPS $1.37, consensus $1.24

Reports Q2 revenue $806.9M, consensus $803.81M. “We had a very strong Q2 and start to our construction season, and I’d like to thank our team for their continued effort to execute on our Competitive EDGE plan to help deliver record results,” CEO Brian Gray said. “We are pleased to report record Q2 revenue, net income and Adjusted EBITDA, building upon the previous records set in Q2 of 2023. We also continued to improve our Adjusted EBITDA margin. On a trailing-twelve-month basis through June 30, Adjusted EBITDA margin grew by 240 basis points, to 15.9%. Driving these strong results were favorable market conditions, continued pricing initiatives, disciplined bidding for higher-margin work and solid project execution. By completing more preconstruction activities in Q1, we pulled costs forward and were able to hit the ground running earlier in the second quarter. Gross profit margin for contracting services increased by 320 basis points from the same quarter last year. Additionally, we have nearly $1B in backlog, at margins we expect to be slightly higher than the prior-year period. We are excited about the second half of the year and beyond, including line-of-sight growth opportunities. We are actively working on several potential acquisitions across our segments, focused on materials-based businesses, and we have the strong balance sheet to support these investments. We are in the right markets, with the right team and the right plan to deliver for our shareholders. Given our Q2 results and the visibility we have into the second half of the year, we are raising our guidance for 2024. We anticipate revenue in the range of $2.8B-$3.0B and Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $445M-$485M.”