Comentario de un analista canadiense
By: Nick Sciple
BWX Technologies returns to our Best Buys Now list for the second straight month, as this winner continues to deliver. Shares surged nearly 20% on Tuesday in response to a solid second-quarter earnings release and continued positive regulatory developments. While shares continue to make new all-time highs, we think this growth story is far from over.
Second-quarter revenue climbed 12% year over year to $764 million, fueled mainly by higher naval nuclear component production and special-materials processing in the Government Operations segment, while Commercial Operations benefited from robust demand for large-component fabrication and medical isotopes. Net income advanced to $78.5 million, and GAAP EPS reached $0.85 (non-GAAP EPS $1.02, up 24%). Adjusted EBITDA rose 16 % to $145.9 million, and free cash flow more than tripled to $126 million thanks to disciplined working-capital management and an earlier award profile. Management raised full-year guidance again, now targeting $565 to $575 million in adjusted EBITDA and $3.65 to $3.75 in non-GAAP EPS, on roughly $3.1 billion of revenue and $275 to $285 million of free cash flow.
Government Operations (77% of revenue) delivered a 9% top-line increase and an 18% jump in operating income, reflecting steadier pacing on Virginia-class submarine work and margin expansion on special-materials contracts. Commercial Operations revenue leapt 24%, aided by the now-closed Kinectrics acquisition (May 20), new SMR component orders tied to Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington project, and stronger isotope sales. Sales mix and growth investments, however, compressed segment margin to 9.2 %. Even so, total company backlog hit a record $6 billion, up 70% year over year, buoyed by a multiyear pricing agreement for naval reactors and over $1 billion of associated bookings already logged.
The Kinectrics deal doubles BWXT’s commercial-services workforce and broadens lifecycle engineering capabilities, which will be important as Canada advances both the SMR and large-reactor programmes we flagged in our July BBN article. On the U.S. side, President Donald Trump’s August executive order to accelerate nuclear licensing dovetails with BWXT’s expanding capacity at its Cambridge site and should underpin the company’s raised 2025 outlook. Meanwhile, BWXT’s microreactor technology, previously funded by the Department of Energy, remains a logical candidate for future lunar or Martian surface power, an adjacency that could gain new traction given recent NASA directives.
On August 5, 2025, acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy issued an agency-wide directive to “solicit industry proposals for a 100-kilowatt fission surface power plant and have it operating on the Moon by 2030.” The move accelerates the 2022 Fission Surface Power programme (originally scoped at 40 kW) and explicitly seeks to pre-empt Chinese and Russian plans for the moon. Duffy’s timeline aligns with BWXT’s own microreactor development schedule and positions the company, already one of the three groups that received early design awards, as a prime contender for the flight unit.
The quarter’s numbers confirm BWXT’s ability to convert favourable nuclear policy into earnings growth: double-digit revenue expansion, widening operating leverage, and record backlog provide visibility well beyond the current fiscal year. The Kinectrics integration, enlarged Cambridge facility, and life-extension work in Canada create additional upside optionality, while the emergent lunar-reactor race could open an entirely new market. At nearly 50 times the mid-point of updated 2025 non-GAAP EPS guidance, shares aren’t cheap. Nevertheless, the company’s unique exposure to defence, commercial power, medical isotopes, and now space-nuclear markets justifies a premium. Investors who followed our July call to “add to your winner” can feel validated. Newcomers still have a compelling entry point into a nuclear pure-play with a runway for growth that could extend over a decade.
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En mi caso he pasado está posición a liquidez para evitar posibles correcciones de verano.
