Fuel Tech Inc (NASDAQ:FTEK) shares went sharply south, after the company reported Q1 net loss of $0.05 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $0.01 per share. Sales came in at $10.155 million, missing estimates by $3.585 million.
The company, based in Warrenville, Illinois, said the net loss from continuing operations included: a $0.6-million severance-related restructuring charge associated with the ongoing suspension of Beijing Fuel Tech’s operations.
Substantially all the severance charges associated with this suspension were realized as of March 31, 2019; a $0.3-million operating loss at Beijing Fuel Tech, which was exclusive of the above-referenced restructuring charge; and a $0.3-million charge associated with required incremental work for a domestic APC project
CEO Vincent J. Arnone said. "We continue to pursue a promising pipeline of APC contract opportunities, particularly in the U.S., and we are in various stages of negotiation with potential clients that, in the aggregate, represent $10-15 million of contract award opportunities that we expect will close by late Q2 or early Q3 2019.
"The outlook for FUEL CHEM is also promising. We are scheduled to begin installing our FUEL CHEM program on two incremental coal-fired units at a domestic utility in May and expect to have these new units up-and-running by the end of Q2 2019."
Research and development expenses remained stable at $0.3 million in Q1 2019 and Q1 2018.
Capital projects backlog at March 31, 2019 was $12.2 million, $10.0 million of which was domestic.
Shares suffered a loss of 82 cents, or nearly 33%, to $1.66
