Jacobs Reaches 52-Week High

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (JEC - Analyst Report), a construction services provider, hit a 52-week high of $53.80 on Mar 15, 2013, as it gained momentum from a continued flow of contracts from well-known companies that followed modest fiscal first quarter 2013 results. Jacobs has generated a return of approximately 26.2% year-to-date.

This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company’s long-term estimated earnings per share growth rate is 13.5%. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months came in at approximately 1.0 million.

Galore of Contracts

Jacobs has been successfully achieving a large number of projects and has also implemented them with equal success. In March, Jacobs received a contract from Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Co., based in China, for designing a sulfuric acid plant for an undisclosed amount. Around the same time, Jacobs also inked an agreement with Shell Company of Australia Ltd., for Shell’s Clyde Terminal Project based in Sydney, Australia.

Also, in February, Jacobs signed another contract with NASA for its Johnson Space Centre. This contract is not the first, but rather among many other contracts that Jacobs has entered into with NASA in various regions. The company is also expanding its operations beyond the US, to regions like China, Australia, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia, to name only a few.

In late January, Jacobs reported modest results for its fiscal first quarter 2013, with earnings per share of 76 cents, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Revenue increased 4.6% year over year to $2.6 billion in 2012.

Estimates have also been increasing consistently over the past 60 days, after the announcement of the results. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2013 rose almost 1.5% to $3.35 while that for fiscal 2014 increased 4.2% to $3.74 in the past 60 days.

Other Stocks to Consider

Other stocks worth a look in the services industry are AECOM Technology Corporation (ACM - Snapshot Report), Tyco International (TYC - Analyst Report) and Mistras Group Inc. (MG - Snapshot Report); each of these holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).