ENR tracks the financial performance of key engineering and construction contractors.
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Parsons Corp., one of a handful of government contractors that stands to benefit from both the increasing need for military and security technology and non-military infrastructure, reported 2023 year-end net income of $161 million on revenue of $5.4 billion.
In 2022, the company netted $97 million on revenue of $4.19 billion.
For its final quarter of last year, the Chantilly, Va.-based company reported net income of $45 million on revenue of $1.5 billion, compared to $28 million on $1.1 billion for the same period in 2022, capping a solid year. Parsons’ share price (PSN-NYSE) closed on Feb. 21 at about $75.29, way above its low for the past year of $40.61.
The performance reaffirmed the company’s basic business model and strategy almost five years after it raised $500 million in a May 2019 stock offering. Prior to that, it had operated for many years as a privately-held company.
In recent years Parsons successfully shifted its identity to that of a technology company rather than a construction engineer and contractor, fields where it still has substantial business.
In December, Parsons enthusiastically announced that S&P Dow Jones Indices had changed the company’s classification code to “research and consulting services, acknowledging its status as a leading professional services provider.”
Most of the 2023 revenue increase came from ramp-up of recent contract wins and growth of existing contracts, the company reported. Acquisitions added about $274 million.
Demand for Parsons’ critical Infrastructure services as an engineer and contractor remains strong in its three geographic markets: the U.S., Canada and Middle East.
But in 2017, when current CEO Carey Smith headed Parsons’s federal business unit, she told the online publication Washington Technology: “If you look at where the market is going [in the future], it’s basically converged security: combining cyber and physical security into solutions.”
More recently, Smith said on a Feb. 14 results call with investors that Parsons’ core defense markets are “growing at mid-to-high single digits.”
She said: “Given world-wide geopolitical events, we continue to see strong demand for our solutions, including cyber, electronic warfare, signals collection, space, missile defense and critical Infrastructure protection.”
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.
