L.B. Foster reports Q4 EPS 4c vs ($4.09) last year

Reports Q4 revenue $134.877M vs $137.173M last year. John Kasel, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We finished 2023 on a strong note, exceeding our revenue and profitability guidance and achieving robust organic sales growth and gross margin expansion. While fourth quarter gross profit grew $2.3 million year over year, representing a 200 bps improvement in gross margin to 21.5%, adjusted EBITDA was down $1.4 million year over year due primarily to higher variable incentive costs that will reset moving into 2024. The highlight for the quarter was our delivery of an exceptional $22.1 million in cash flow from operations. In fact, we generated $40.7 million in cash flow from operations in the second half of 2023, which allowed us to make progress reducing our debt, further improve leverage and continue our stock buyback program. We finished the year with $52.7 million in net debt, down $36.3 million during the year, and we reduced our gross leverage by more than one turn to 1.7x as of year end. These results, coupled with the upcoming completion of our final $8.0 million settlement funding obligation to Union Pacific in 2024, highlight the cash flow generating power of our business which is expected to improve further in the years to come.”