ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM) isn’t a well-known name, but by providing services related to building and facility maintenance that span from simple carpet and floor cleaning and parking-lot operations to mechanical engineering and other custom-tailored services, the company has its finger on the pulse of the U.S. economy. Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM) over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report.
Stats on ABM Industries
| Analyst EPS Estimate | $0.33 |
| Change From Year-Ago EPS | 10% |
| Revenue Estimate | $1.18 billion |
| Change From Year-Ago Revenue | 11.8% |
| Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters | 2 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
How will ABM Industries fare with its earnings this quarter?
Analysts have taken a more favorable view of the earnings outlook at ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM) lately, raising their estimates for the full 2013 fiscal year by $0.03 per share. The stock has responded with modest gains of 8% since late February.
ABM has quietly put together an impressive business in serving some major facility installations around the world. Last year, the company bought Air Serv for $158 million, boosting its presence in the lucrative aviation facility management space. With Air Serv having served 27 of the top 40 U.S. markets and 12 of the top 30 airports worldwide, the company made a good fit to go with ABM’s airport parking, janitorial, and security businesses.
In its previous report in March, ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM) highlighted its Janitorial division as having the most growth potential, with expectations for several new and large jobs ramping up in the coming quarters. Even with sequestration having started, the company hadn’t seen a major impact to its government-related business at that point.
Moreover, since then, ABM Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ABM) has had some more successes. In what could become an important strategic move, it entered into a joint venture that will give it the ability to provide solar-energy services to large commercial and utility-scale solar markets. Solar giant First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) has produced extremely strong results with its large-scale solar projects lately, and as solar modules have gotten more affordable, the opportunity to use solar in more applications has gotten bigger. ABM also won part of a joint contract with Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) to provide engineering services to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and although that $48.2 million contract is relatively small, it shows that new spending is happening at the government level despite sequestration.
In ABM’s quarterly report, watch closely to see how the Air Serv integration is progressing. With big growth in the aerospace industry, serving airports is likely to have lucrative opportunities in the years to come, and that part of ABM’s business could become extremely important to its overall long-term success.
The article How ABM Industries Aims to Keep Growing originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Dan Caplinger.
Fool contributor Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter @DanCaplinger. The Motley Fool owns shares of Lockheed Martin.
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