Parsons Corp. Rolls with Lucrative Third Quarter and BCC Engineering Buy

Parsons Corp. Rolls With Lucrative Third Quarter and BCC Engineering Buy

Parson's Corp. reported a strong third quarter for 2024 after having acquired a large transportation engineering company.
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Parsons Corp. had significantly higher profit and revenue for the third quarter of 2024, the company reported Oct. 30, concluding its most successful quarter since its 2019 initial public offering.

The announcement came nine days after the Chantilly, Va.-based company (NYSE-PSN) announced its $230-million cash acquisition of BCC Engineering, a Miami-based general engineer with a substantial transportation practice that includes offices in Georgia, Texas and South Carolina. The company has 385 employees and ranks at No. 239 on the ENR Top 500 Design Firms list.

In its most recent financial report, Parsons said it had net income of $72 million on $1.8 billion in revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared to $47 million on $1.4 billion in revenue for the same period a year ago.

For the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, the company reported net income of $34 million on $5 billion in revenue, compared to $116 million on $3.9 billion for the same period last year.

A ramp-up of recent contract wins helped drive up the quarter revenue, as did growth in existing contracts in the company's critical infrastructure protection and cyber and intelligence markets.

While revenue rose, Parsons net income for the nine-month period was limited by a write-down on a legacy program in the company's critical infrastructure segment—contracts that predate its current more disciplined approach to work it accepts. The legacy program is scheduled to reach substantial completion in the fourth quarter, the firm said.

Parsons, which ranks No. 15 on the ENR Top 500 list, is among government contractors that stand to benefit from both the increasing need for military and security technology and non-military infrastructure.

The company's future workload is promising, with major infrastructure contracts in the New York City area and a growing portfolio of work on projects in Saudi Arabia.

CEO Carey Smith told investment analysts in an Oct. 31 teleconference that the company's strategy included investing in software and integrated solutions and executing "accretive acquisitions that either provide distinguished defense capabilities that counter near-pure threats or strengthen our engineering expertise and increase our geographical footprint in high-growth infrastructure markets."

Deputy Editor Richard Korman helps run ENR's business and legal news and investigations, selects ENR's commentary and oversees editorial content on ENR.com. In 2023 the American Society of Business Publication Editors awarded Richard the Stephen Barr Award, the highest honor for a single feature story or investigation, for his story on the aftermath of a terrible auto crash in Kentucky in 2019, and in 2015 the American Business Media awarded him the Timothy White Award for investigations of surety fraud and workplace bullying. A member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Richard has been a fellow on drone safety with the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Richard's freelance writing has appeared in the Seattle Times, the New York Times, Business Week and the websites of The Atlantic and Salon.com. He admires construction projects that finish on time and budget, compensate all team members fairly and record zero fatalities or serious injuries.

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