What Happened?

Shares of marine infrastructure company Orion (NYSE:ORN) fell 16.4% in the pre-market session after the company reported fourth-quarter 2024 results, which left a lot to be desired, with both revenue and earnings missing the mark by a wide margin. Despite a 7.6% rise in contract revenue, driven by growth in both the Marine and Concrete segments, the company struggled with rising costs and earnings per share, though positive, failed to meet expectations. 

On top of that, guidance for full-year revenue, EPS, and EBITDA came in below what Wall Street was hoping for, adding to the disappointment. Overall, this quarter could have been better.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Orion’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 61 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Orion and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. 

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock dropped 27.7% on the news that the company reported weak second-quarter earnings results: Unfortunately, its revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and EPS all fell short of Wall Street's estimates as the company suffered logistics setbacks due to the slower ramp of two large projects. This setback was expected to lead to a shift in revenue recognition. As a result, management lowered full-year revenue to $850 million to $900 million and adjusted EBITDA to $40 million to $45 million. Overall, this was a challenging quarter.

Orion is down 25.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $5.54 per share, it is trading 53.3% below its 52-week high of $11.87 from July 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Orion’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,684.

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