Powell Industries Delivers Record-Breaking Fiscal Year 2024 and Sets Stage for Future Growth
Powell Industries has announced a strong fourth quarter performance, capping off a record-breaking fiscal year 2024. The company's revenue growth of 32% compared to the prior year has helped achieve a total of $1 billion in revenue for the full fiscal year, marking a significant growth milestone and a record year for the company.
The company experienced tremendous growth in each of its key markets throughout fiscal 2024, with top-line growth by 45% compared to fiscal 2023. Powell's Oil & Gas and Petrochemical sectors grew 53% and 97%, respectively, while revenues within the Commercial & Other Industrial and Electric Utility sectors increased 44% and 18%, respectively.
Notable bookings included $267 million of new orders in the quarter, led by strong activity within the Utility sector and a significant booking supporting the capacity expansion of an LNG facility based along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company recorded more than $1 billion in new orders for the second consecutive fiscal year.
Powell's core industrial markets have remained strong, while the company continues to make substantial progress to diversify and grow in markets such as utilities, data centers, hydrogen, carbon capture and more. The company's project execution remains an area of strength, reflected by its gross margin. Powell's fourth-quarter margin of 29.2% was aided slightly by some one-time items, but the underlying margin performance continues to improve.
For the full year, Powell recorded a gross margin of 27%, which was an improvement of 590 basis points compared to the prior year. The company continues to see improvement in the margin profile of sectors outside of its core industrial end markets as it becomes more efficient in manufacturing and delivery processes for these projects.
On the bottom line, Powell recorded net income of $46 million in the fourth quarter or $3.77 per diluted share, which was 74% higher than the prior year. For the full year, net income of $150 million translated to $12.29 per diluted share, nearly tripling the $4.50 per diluted share delivered in fiscal 2023.
Powell's backlog continues to hold steady at $1.3 billion, which was unchanged compared to both the prior quarter and the prior year. The company is pleased with the overall composition of its backlog as well as the time lines and margin profile of the projects that constitute its order book.
The company's current project schedule provides good visibility as it has orders in its backlog that it expects to realize revenue into fiscal 2027. Powell is making good progress with its capacity initiatives, advancing as planned to help facilitate the execution of its current backlog and provide room for modest volume growth going forward.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Powell acquired 9 acres of property neighboring its Houston headquarters location. The company is already making use of this incremental space, freeing up capacity to drive more throughput in its nearby manufacturing facility, which will contribute incremental revenue in fiscal 2025.
