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Itron Inc. ITRI reported non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $1.35 for fourth-quarter 2024, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 28.6%. The company reported earnings of $1.23 per share in the prior-year quarter.

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Revenues were $613 million, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.6%. The top line grew 6% year over year, exceeding the high end of the company’s guided range. The uptick was driven by higher demand across its Networked Solutions and Outcomes segments. Robust business pipeline activities, fueled by the growing adoption of the grid edge intelligence platform, favored the top-line expansion.

Product revenues were $532.4 million (86.9% of total revenues), up 6% year over year. Service revenues totaled $80.5 million (13.1%), up 7%.

Itron’s bookings were $1.4 billion, contributing to full-year bookings of $2.7 billion, and its backlog amounted to $4.7 billion at the end of the reported quarter.

Itron, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Itron, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Itron, Inc. Quote

In response to the better-than-anticipated performance, shares jumped 10% and closed the trading session at $101.81 on Feb. 25. The stock has gained 11.8% in the past year compared against the Zacks Electronics-Testing Equipment industry’s decline of 1.1%.

Segments in Detail

Device Solutions: Revenues generated from this segment were $108.5 million (17.7% of total revenues), which declined 4% (down 5% in constant currency), mainly due to a decrease in sales of legacy electricity products. Our estimate was pegged at $116.5 million.

Networked Solutions: Revenues of $413.1 (67.4%) million grew 6% year over year, driven by new project deployments and robust execution to meet customer demand. We suggested the metric to be $407.5 million.

Outcomes: Revenues of $91.2 million (14.9%) improved 25% on a year-over-year basis due to the increasing uptake of Itron’s software and services. Our projection was $78.6 million.

Operating Details

Itron’s gross margin was 34.9%, which expanded 90 basis points on a year-over-year basis. This was due to improved operational efficiencies.

Non-GAAP operating expenses of $143.3 million rose 5.8% year over year.

Non-GAAP operating income was $70.6 million compared with $60.9 million in the year-ago quarter. The upside was driven by higher gross profit, slightly offset by increased operating expenses.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flows

As of Dec. 31, cash and cash equivalents totaled 1.05 billion, up from $982.5 million as of Sept. 30, 2024.

As of Dec. 31, net long-term debt was $1.24 billion, the same as on Sept. 30, 2024.

Itron generated $80 million of cash from operations in the reported quarter compared with $48 million in the prior-year quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the free cash flow reached $70 million, up from $39 million in the previous year's quarter, driven by both higher earnings and improved interest income.

Financial Guidance

For the first quarter of 2025, Itron expects revenues to be between $610 million and $620 million.

Non-GAAP EPS is anticipated to be in the range of $1.25-$1.35.

The full-year outlook is based on a steady market environment and the continuation of 2024 trade policies. For 2025, management projects revenues to be between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion.

Non-GAAP EPS is estimated in the $5.20-$5.60 band.

ITRI’s Zacks Rank

Currently, Itron carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1(Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

Recent Performance of Other Firms

Open Text Corporation OTEX reported second-quarter fiscal 2025 adjusted EPS of $1.11, compared with $1.24 a year ago. The figure outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 92 cents per share.

In the past year, shares of OTEX have declined 31.7%.

Commvault Systems CVLT reported third-quarter fiscal 2025 results wherein adjusted earnings of 94 cents per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 87 cents. The figure compares with earnings of 78 cents per share a year ago. Quarterly revenues jumped 21% year over year to $ $262.6 million. Subscription revenues were $158.3 million, up 39% year over year.

In the past year, CVLT shares have surged 78.3%.

Blackbaud, Inc. BLKB reported fourth-quarter 2024 non-GAAP EPS of $1.08, which was in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The bottom line decreased 5.3% year over year.

Shares of BLKB have declined 0.8% in the past year.

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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