L.B. Foster reports Q1 EPS (20c) vs. 40c last year

Reports Q1 revenue $97.8M vs. $124.3M last year. John Kasel, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “As mentioned in our 2024 year end earnings announcement back in March, we started 2025 with first quarter sales and profitability down versus last year. This was due to an exceptionally-strong first quarter last year for our Rail segment. Within the segment, Rail Products sales declined $23.7 million, or 44.7%, due to lower Rail Distribution volumes. Infrastructure sales grew 5.0% over last year and expanded operating results in the quarter driven by a 33.7% increase in Precast Concrete sales. Focusing on what we can influence in the short term, we drove cost controls which resulted in an 8.4% reduction in operating expenses versus last year, partially mitigating the impact of lower gross profit from the Rail Distribution sales decline. We also stepped up our stock buybacks to 168,911 shares in the first quarter, or 1.5% of outstanding common stock.” Mr. Kasel concluded, “Looking ahead, we saw a strong uptick in orders in both segments, with backlog growing during the quarter 46.9% and 17.8% for Rail and Infrastructure, respectively. The higher Rail backlog included a $22.8 million increase, or 63.4%, in Rail Products backlog driven primarily by improved demand within Rail Distribution. In line with our strategy, the overall backlog improvement was greatest in our more profitable product lines, which should translate into near-term sales growth and profitability expansion year over year as early as the second quarter. We’re in the heavy working capital investment period of our fiscal year, and we expect leverage levels will plateau around 2.5x before dropping back to our target level between 1.0x and 2.0x in the back half of the year. While the macro-environment remains volatile and uncertain, we are maintaining our 2025 financial guidance as we remain confident in our ability to land within our previous guidance for the year. As a reminder, our 2025 guidance assumes federal infrastructure funding previously announced remains largely intact. We will revisit our guidance as appropriate as these market demand drivers and broader operating conditions become more clear for the balance of the year.”