Powell Industries Bookings Triple as Data-Center Orders Surge
Powell Industries posted record quarterly bookings of $934 million, up 158% from a year earlier, pushing its backlog to $2.4 billion.
Powell Industries (POWL) reported record new orders of $934 million for its fiscal third quarter, up 158% from $362 million a year earlier and up 91% from $490 million in the prior quarter.
The surge pushed Powell's book-to-bill ratio to 3.0 times, from 1.7 times in each of the two preceding quarters, and lifted backlog to a record $2.4 billion as of June 30, up 69% from $1.4 billion a year earlier. Backlog growth has accelerated in each of the last four quarters, climbing from 16% year-over-year in the fiscal first quarter to 33% in the second and 69% in the third.
Revenue reached $312 million, up 9% from $286.3 million a year earlier and up 5% from $296.6 million in the prior quarter, extending a trend of accelerating year-over-year growth that followed a 6% gain in the second quarter and a 4% decline in the first. Net income rose to $52.2 million, or $1.42 a diluted share, up 8% from a year earlier and up 14% sequentially from $45.9 million, or $1.25 a share, in the prior quarter. Gross margin was 30.6%, roughly flat with 30.7% a year earlier but up from a seasonal trough of 28.4% in the fiscal first quarter and 29.6% in the second.
Commercial & Other Industrial revenue, which includes data-center demand, grew 54% from a year earlier, accelerating from 35% growth in the prior quarter and reversing an 8% decline in the fiscal first quarter. Electric Utility revenue grew 18%, decelerating for a second straight quarter from 35% growth in the first quarter, while Petrochemical revenue fell 49%, a deepening decline from a 37% drop in the prior quarter and a 31% drop in the quarter before that.
The petrochemical business nonetheless contributed a $75 million order in the quarter, one of three mega orders exceeding $50 million that Powell booked in the period: a data-center order topping $400 million, the petrochemical and fertilizer order, and a roughly $60 million liquefied-natural-gas order. That compares with two mega orders above $75 million apiece in the prior quarter and the company's first-ever data-center mega order, worth about $75 million, in the fiscal first quarter, marking the emergence of data centers as a recurring source of large awards.
Cash and short-term investments rose to $633.6 million as of June 30, continuing a sequential buildup from $545 million in the prior quarter, $501 million in the fiscal first quarter and $476 million at the end of the previous fiscal year. Gross margins are expected to hold near trailing-twelve-month levels through the remainder of the fiscal year, while the company adds manufacturing capacity through an expansion at its Jacintoport facility and evaluation of greenfield sites in Houston and Ohio to support the backlog.
Powell declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 a share, split-adjusted, following an April 2 three-for-one forward stock split that retroactively restated the company's historical share and per-share figures.