CACI International [CACI] on Wednesday posted strong third quarter financial results with double-digit percent gains in sales and earnings despite some hits from the ongoing pandemic.

Net income increased 18 percent to $80.6 million, $3.16 earnings per share (EPS), from $68.1 million ($2.69 EPS) a year ago, beating consensus estimates by 17 cents per share. The increase in net income was driven by higher sales and operating profit, officials said on the company’s earnings call Thursday morning.

Sales increased 16 percent to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion a year ago, with 10 percent of the growth organic. The organic growth was driven by new business wins and increased work under existing contracts.

CACI estimates that COVID-19 related impacts lopped off $4.5 million from the bottom line and $10 million from sales. These impacts were due to company employees and subcontractors not being able to access facilities due to the pandemic and who could not telework, CACI said.

The company tallied $1.4 billion in contract awards in the quarter, 50 percent of which is new business.

Guidance for the fiscal year is unchanged despite estimates that the company will lose $65 million in sales and $15 million in net income due to COVID-19. If not for the pandemic, company officials said net income would be at or above projections this fiscal year.

Despite impacts from the pandemic, the company said its business environment remains healthy and it has submitted bids worth $2.5 billion in the past six weeks. Most of the company’s work is under long-term contracts, the officials said.

In the near-term, CACI is taking a “hiatus” from potential merger and acquisition deals as it focuses on operations, John Mengucci, the company’s president and CEO, said on the call. This pause is for around 60 to 90 days, he said. The company continues to review potential acquisition candidates and its focus remains on filling gaps and capabilities and getting access to new customers, he said.

In the post-COVID environment, there may be new areas that make sense for deals, Mengucci said.

In response to an analyst’s question about post-COVID trends and “silver linings,” Mengucci responded that he sees increasing interest in secure mobility capabilities and in being able to do distributed classified development in an unclassified manner. As an example, he pointed to a temporary sensitive compartmented information facility the company stood up in nine days in coordination with two customers to support 330 employees as the kind of agile solution development that can be done more routinely going forward.

CACI’s total backlog at the end of March stood at $19.9 billion, up 34 percent from $14.9 billion a year ago. Funded backlog was $3 billion, up 3 percent from $2.9 billion a year ago.