Jacobs (JEC) To Facilitate India's Urban Water Management

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:JEC) has been appointed by Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (“SCE”) to provide engineering consultancy services in India to build sustainable urban water management, recycle and re-use capabilities.

In association with NITI Aayog and Temasek Foundation International, Jacobs will carry out workshops and examine the feasibility of the program under Urban Management Program on Water Recycling and Reuse Phase 2. This workshop will contribute toward key areas of non-revenue water management, water treatment technology, preliminary design development for recycle/reuse facilities, development of project delivery options, including references from past projects like Singapore’s own water management approach. This year-long program will be supported by collective expertise of leaders from India, Singapore and Asia Pacific.

Solid increase in professional services and synergies from the CH2M acquisition are helping the company’s Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities (“BIAF”) line of business to register growth. Revenues from the segment grew 90.9% year over year in first-quarter fiscal 2019. Backlog at the end of the quarter was roughly $13.2 billion, up 7.4% year over year.

Recently, Jacobs won a contract extension from the City and County of Denver for the redevelopment of its National Western Center campus. Per the contract, Jacobs will help the City and County of Denver to refurbish 60 acres of the site cited as The Triangle project through its BIAF line of business.

Efficient project execution has been one of the main factors driving Jacobs’ performance over the last few quarters. This is evident from the company’s first-quarter fiscal 2019 backlog (excluding discontinued business ECR), which grew 8% year over year to $20.3 billion. Aerospace, Technology and Nuclear and BIAF lines of business have been experiencing a higher margin boost from continuous government and infrastructure-spending programs.

Share Price Performance

Jacobs’ shares have outperformed its industry over the past three months. The company’s shares have gained 22.6% compared with 13.8% growth of its industry in the past three months. Also, earnings estimates for fiscal 2019 have moved 0.07% upward over the past 30 days.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Currently, Jacobs carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other top-ranked stocks in the Zacks Construction sector include Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE:PWR) , Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) and Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) . While Quanta Services and Great Lakes sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Altair carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Quanta Services, Great Lakes and Altair’s current-year earnings are expected to increase 28%, 27.8% and 58.6%, respectively.

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