Consulting services firm Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH] yesterday posted a strong end to its fiscal year with increases in earnings and sales in the fourth quarter.
Net income soared more than 180 percent to $50.6 million, 36 cents earnings per share (EPS), versus $18.1 million (13 cents EPS) a year ago. Stripping out charges and other one-time costs and benefits, adjusted net income increased 23 percent to $62.2 million (44 cents EPS), topping consensus estimates by four cents.
Net income a year ago was hindered by a one-time $33.2 million expense related to debt refinancing. Sales and income in the fourth quarter also benefited from a recovery of state income taxes, amounting to $6.1 million after taxes.
Booz Allen attributed the income gain to higher sales and increased profitability due to decreases in incentive compensation costs. Earlier this year Booz Allen moved to eliminate a number of senior and middle management positions, which resulted in a charge of more than $15 million but also freed up resources to enable it to pursue growth opportunities in commercial and international markets.
Sales in the quarter increased 3 percent to just over $1.5 billion from just under $1.5 billion. The company said it benefited from organic growth in its major markets despite continued procurement delays in the federal government, its primary customer.
Intelligence and C4ISR remain bright spots for government growth and the healthcare and financial sectors were “bright stars” in the commercial market, company officials said on yesterday’s earnings call.
Booz Allen went public over a year ago and initially as part of its agreement with its former businesses, which offer consulting services to the commercial sector, was barred from entering new commercial markets. Now the company is free to pursue commercial business and sees opportunities for growth, said Ralph Shrader, Booz Allen’s chairman, president and CEO.
In particular, Booz Allen sees demand for its services in the healthcare, financial services and energy utilities markets. In the international arena there are opportunities around cyber security, the company said.
Shrader pointed to the Middle East as a growth opportunity for Booz Allen and said the company is expanding its office in Abu Dhabi and making arrangements to do business in other countries in the region.
Despite the organic growth and prospects for new commercial and international work, Booz Allen said its visibility into its next fiscal year is limited. For the first half of the fiscal year, which coincides with the second half of the federal government’s fiscal year, sales are expected to be flat to up in the low single digits. For the year EPS is expected to be between $1.62 and $1.72.
For its fiscal year 2012, Booz Allen posted net income of $240 million ($1.70 EPS) versus $84 million (66 cents EPS) a year ago. Sales for the year increased 5 percent to $5.9 billion from $5.6 billion.
Shrader said that the company has identified seven priorities for investment in 2013. These are commercial, international, cyber security, healthcare, cloud services, engineering services, and enterprise efficiency and effectiveness.
Backlog at the end of the fiscal year was $10.8 billion, down $100 million from a year ago, although funded backlog increased $500 million to $2.9 billion. The company had a book-to-bill ratio of one while free cash flow was $283.1 million versus $207.6 million a year ago.
Confident in its prospects and cash flow, Booz Allen this week declared a special $1.50 per share special cash dividend. In addition, the company’s board authorized a nine cents per share quarterly cash dividend.