HOUSTON, Oct. 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Marine Group, Inc. (NYSE:ORN) (the "Company"), a heavy civil marine contractor, today reported net income for the three months ended September 30, 2014, of $3.0 million ($0.11 diluted earnings per share). These results compare to a net loss of $0.9 million ($0.03 diluted loss per share) for the same period a year ago.

"As expected, the effects from higher asset utilization and solid project execution resulted in profitable third quarter and year to date results," said Mark Stauffer, Orion Marine Group's President. "Sequential and year over year improvements in our quarterly revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA demonstrate our ability to drive positive bottom line results through improved asset utilization. Overall, we remain confident in our ability to deliver solid results in the fourth quarter and have a profitable full year."

Financial highlights of the Company's third quarter 2014 include:

Third Quarter 2014

• Third quarter 2014 contract revenue was $107.0 million, an increase of 20.2%, as compared with third quarter 2013 contract revenue of $89.0 million.
   
• The Company self-performed approximately 83% of its work as measured by cost during the third quarter 2014, which is comparable to the prior year period.
   
• Gross profit for the quarter was $12.9 million, which represents a increase of $7.3 million as compared with the third quarter of 2013. Gross profit margin for the quarter was 12.1%, which was higher than the prior year period of 6.3%. The increase was a result of higher asset utilization and solid project execution.
   
• Selling, General, and Administrative expenses for the third quarter 2014 were $7.9 million as compared to $8.0 million in the prior year period.
   
• The Company's third quarter 2014 EBITDA was $11.4 million, representing a 10.7% EBITDA margin, which compares to third quarter 2013 EBITDA of $3.1 million, or a 3.5% EBITDA margin. Similar to gross margin, EBITDA margin for the third quarter improved as a result of higher asset utilization and solid project execution.

Backlog of work under contract as of September 30, 2014, was $242.0 million, which compares with backlog under contract at September 30, 2013, of $216.5 million.

The Company reminds investors that backlog can fluctuate from period to period due to the timing and execution of contracts. Given the typical duration of the Company's projects, which generally range from three to nine months, the Company's backlog at any point in time usually represents only a portion of the revenue it expects to realize during a twelve-month period. Backlog consists of projects under contract that have either (a) not been started, or (b) are in progress and not yet complete, and the Company cannot guarantee that the revenue projected in its backlog will be realized, or, if realized, will result in earnings.

Outlook

"Strength in our end markets should translate into opportunity for growth in 2015," said Mr. Stauffer. "We continue to see private sector demand remain strong, as energy sector clients and recreational customers continue to expand their facilities. While there still remains some uncertainty regarding the pace of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lettings over the next few months, we are pleased with the list of Corps projects we are tracking and if these projects are let it should support strong asset utilization. We also continue to see a steady level of bid opportunities from state departments of transportation related to bridge construction, maintenance and repair. We should also continue to see bid opportunities from local port authorities to expand and refurbish their waterside infrastructure as the completion of the Panama Canal expansion project nears."

"Overall, we are pleased with both the amount of work we bid on and the amount of work we won during the third quarter of 2014," said Chris DeAlmeida, Orion Marine Group's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "During the third quarter, we bid on approximately $237 million worth of opportunities and were successful on approximately $67 million. This represents a 28% win rate and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.63 times for the quarter. While our book to bill ratio fell below one to one for the quarter, this is a result of normal fluctuations in the timing of bids and not a material change in our bid market. Currently, we have over $159 million worth of bids outstanding, including approximately $37 million on which we are apparent low bidder. With our strong backlog level, we continue to expect a profitable 2014. Additionally, we believe there is sufficient bid opportunities to see growth in 2015.

As part of our capital allocation strategy, the Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to $40 million of the Company's stock over the next five years. The specific timing and amount of actual future share repurchases, if any, will vary based on our capital needs, market conditions, securities law limitations and other factors."

Conference Call Details

Orion Marine Group will conduct a telephone briefing to discuss its results for the third quarter 2014 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time/9:00 a.m. Central Time on Thursday, October 30, 2014. To listen to a live broadcast of this briefing, visit the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.orionmarinegroup.com. To participate in the call, please call the Orion Marine Group Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call at 800-884-5695; participant code 12757202.

About Orion Marine Group

Orion Marine Group, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates (hereafter collectively referred to as "Orion" or the "Company") provide a broad range of heavy civil marine construction and specialty services on, over and under the water in the continental United States, Alaska, Canada and the Caribbean Basin and acts as a single source turn-key solution for our customers' marine contracting needs. Our heavy civil marine construction services include marine transportation facility construction, marine pipeline construction, marine environmental structures, dredging of waterways, channels and ports, environmental dredging, and specialty services. We are headquartered in Houston, Texas.

EBITDA and EBITDA Margin

This press release includes the financial measures "EBITDA" and "EBITDA margin." These measurements may be deemed "non-GAAP financial measures" under rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Regulation G. The non-GAAP financial information may be determined or calculated differently by other companies. By reporting such non-GAAP financial information, the Company does not intend to give such information greater prominence than comparable and other GAAP financial information, which information is of equal or greater importance.

Orion Marine Group defines EBITDA as net income before net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA margin is calculated by dividing EBITDA for the period by contract revenues for the period. The GAAP financial measure that is most directly comparable to EBITDA margin is operating margin, which represents operating income divided by contract revenues. EBITDA and EBITDA margin are used internally to evaluate current operating expense, operating efficiency, and operating profitability on a variable cost basis, by excluding the depreciation and amortization expenses, primarily related to capital expenditures and acquisitions, and net interest and tax expenses. Additionally, EBITDA and EBITDA margin provide useful information regarding the Company's ability to meet future debt repayment requirements and working capital requirements while providing an overall evaluation of the Company's financial condition. In addition, EBITDA is used internally for incentive compensation purposes. The Company includes EBITDA and EBITDA margin to provide transparency to investors as they are commonly used by investors and others in assessing performance. EBITDA and EBITDA margin have certain limitations as analytical tools and should not be used as a substitute for operating margin, net income, cash flows, or other data prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or as a measure of the Company's profitability or liquidity.

A reconciliation of the Company's future EBITDA margin to the corresponding GAAP measure is not available as these are estimated goals for the performance of the overall operations over the planning period. These estimated goals are based on assumptions that may be affected by actual outcomes, including but not limited to the factors noted in the "forward looking statements" herein, in other releases, and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Forward-Looking Statements

The matters discussed in this press release may constitute or include projections or other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the provisions of which the Company is availing itself. Certain forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as 'believes', 'expects', 'may', 'will', 'could', 'should', 'seeks', 'approximately', 'intends', 'plans', 'estimates', or 'anticipates', or the negative thereof or other comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, intentions, estimates, forecasts, outlook, assumptions, or goals. In particular, statements regarding future operations or results, including those set forth in this press release (including those under "Outlook" above), and any other statement, express or implied, concerning future operating results or the future generation of or ability to generate revenues, income, net income, profit, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, or cash flow, including to service debt, and including any estimates, forecasts or assumptions regarding future revenues or revenue growth, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements also include estimated project start date, anticipated revenues, and contract options which may or may not be awarded in the future. Forward looking statements involve risks, including those associated with the Company's fixed price contracts that impacts profits, unforeseen productivity delays that may alter the final profitability of the contract, cancellation of the contract by the customer for unforeseen reasons, delays or decreases in funding by the customer, levels and predictability of government funding or other governmental budgetary constraints and any potential contract options which may or may not be awarded in the future, and are the sole discretion of award by the customer. Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. In light of these and other uncertainties, the inclusion of forward-looking statements in this press release should not be regarded as a representation by the Company that the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, goals, intentions, or objectives will be achieved or realized. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release whether as a result of new developments or otherwise.

Please refer to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on March 27, 2014, which is available on its website at www.orionmarinegroup.com or at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, for additional and more detailed discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations, estimates or forecasts.

CONTACT: Orion Marine Group, Inc.Drew Swerdlow, Investor Relations Manager, 713-852-6582