URS Has Outstanding Quarter!

URS Corp. (URS - Snapshot Report) had an outstanding ‘09 first quarter! While Revenues were up 11.6% to over $2.5 billion (we had been looking for just under $2.2 billion), fully-diluted EPS rose by an amazing 55.9% from 59¢ to 92¢ (our estimate was just 64¢). Operating Income rose by 40.8% to more than $163.1 million and the Operating Margin climbed from 5.1% to 6.5%.

The Income Tax Rate was down a bit from 41.5% to 40.9%. Net Income rose by 52.9% to $75.5 million and the Net Margin expanded from 2.2% to 3.0%. There were 0.5% fewer Shares.

Backlog stood at $19.6 billion as compared to $17.2 billion at the end 2008. The breakdown of Backlog was Power = 9.2%, Infrastructure = 12.2%, Federal = 65.8% and Industrial/Commercial = 12.8%. For comparison purposes, the distribution of Revenues during the quarter was Power = 17.0%, Infrastructure = 17.8%, Federal = 37.7% and Industrial/Commercial = 27.5%.

Drilling down into the Segments, URS Revenues were up by 1.5% to $831.6 million, EG&G Revenues rose by 15.5% to $634.4 million and Washington Revenues increased by 19.0% to over $1.07 billion. Operating Margins were up in all three segments as well with URS going from 7.0% to 7.6%, EG&G moving from 4.8% to 5.7% and Washington expanding from 5.3% to 7.6%.

The Balance Sheet had some meaningful improvements on a year-over-year basis as well. The Days in Accounts Receivable dropped from 82 to 74, the Current Ratio rose from 1.61:1 to 1.68:1, Intangibles + Goodwill declined from 104.7% of Equity to 99.6% and Net Long-Term Debt dropped from 31.0% to 19.1%.

Cash Flow in the quarter went from a negative $63.8 million to a positive $163.4 million, a shift of almost $227.3 million to the good.

The Company reaffirmed its outlook for 2009 of Revenues in the range of $9.5 billion to $10.0 billion and EPS of $2.80 to $2.95.

URS is a Zacks “Pick to Click with the Obama Budget!”