Tutor Perini Corporation (NYSE:TPC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 7, 2026
Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Tutor Perini Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Rob, and I will be your coordinator for today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to your host for today, Mr. Jorge Casado, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Jorge Casado: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With us today are Gary Smalley, CEO and President; and Ryan Soroka, Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we discuss our results, I will remind everyone that during today’s call, we will be making forward-looking statements, which are based on management’s current assessment of existing trends and information. There is an inherent risk that our actual results could differ materially. You can find disclosures about risk factors that could contribute to such differences in our Form 10-Q, which we are filing today and in our Form 10-K, which was filed on February 26, 2026. The company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, whether due to new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
In addition, during today’s call, management will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find information and a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures in the earnings release that we issued today and in the Form 10-Q being filed today, both of which can be found in the Investors section of our website. Thank you. And with that, I will turn the call over to Gary Smalley.
Gary Smalley: Thanks, Jorge. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Before we discuss our first quarter results, we wanted to share with you tragic news regarding the recent incident that affected the Tutor Perini family. A few weeks ago, during Super Typhoon Sinlaku, our offshore cargo vessel the Mariana capsized at sea with a 6-member crew that included 2 of our employees near the island of Saipan in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It’s an unimaginable loss for all of us at Tutor Perini, and we extend our deepest thoughts, prayers and heartfelt condolences to the crew’s families, loved ones and the entire affected community. We have been in close contact with the families to provide them with updates and to offer our support.
We remain committed to the families, and we’ll continue to work with them to provide whatever support we can. I would like to express our sincerest appreciation to the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy as well as search teams from the Japan Coast Guard and the Royal New Zealand Air Force for their professionalism and tireless efforts during an intensive nearly 2-week search and rescue mission. One of the bodies of the crew was found, but the other 5 were not. Before proceeding, I will now pause for a moment of silence to honor and remember the crew members and pray for their families and friends. Thank you. Turning to our usual agenda. We delivered strong first quarter results highlighted by record operating cash flow of $147 million, by far the highest first quarter result ever, which was driven by collections on new and ongoing projects.
Our revenue grew 11% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, the highest revenue of any first quarter since 2009, driven by contributions from various larger, higher-margin projects that are in the early stages with significant scope of work remaining. Ryan will get into more of the details of our financial results shortly. Our backlog remains very strong at $19.8 billion at the end of the first quarter, and we continue to expect that it will fuel much higher revenue and earnings, increased profitability and continued strong cash flow this year and beyond. The Civil segment produced its highest ever first quarter operating income, which was up 10% year-over-year and delivered a 12.6% operating margin, solid results for our first quarter, which is typically a slower quarter for us due to seasonality.
The Building segment’s operating income was up an impressive 56% year-over-year with an operating margin of 3.5%. And the Specialty Contractors segment continues to deliver solid execution on its current projects and improved operating results as evidenced by the fact that they were marginally profitable for the quarter with further improvement still expected as the year unfolds. In fact, we see higher margins ahead for all 3 segments as many newer large projects continue to ramp up. In the first quarter, we booked nearly $700 million of new awards and contract adjustments. The largest additions to backlog included the following, which are all in California: $186 million of additional funding for the Eagle Mountain Casino Phase 2 expansion project; $97 million of additional funding for a healthcare project that entered the construction phase; and approximately $66 million for 2 mass-transit projects.
Our strong backlog, which includes the 9 mega projects we won over the last 1 to 3 years, provides us with excellent visibility for our future revenue and earnings over the next several years. Recently, one of our major projects, Brooklyn Jail in New York, reached a key milestone. The project held its topping out ceremony marking the completion of the structure steel frame with the placement of the final and highest structural beam. Workers and dignitaries watch that the final beam adorned with the traditional evergreen tree in American flag rose 15 stories to its destination atop the building that when completed, will be a 1 million square foot facility and have 1,040 beds. This project and all of our other major projects are all running very smoothly with solid business execution and strong financial performance.
As I have discussed previously, customer demand remains strong, and we continue to have numerous significant project bidding opportunities, particularly in the Northeast, the Midwest, the West Coast and the Indo-Pacific region. We believe we are all well positioned to continue winning our share of new projects later this year and over the next several years. We will continue to be very selective when we bid future projects, which will continue to enhance and help maximize shareholder value. Our focus remains on bidding projects with favorable contractual terms, limited competition and higher margins. In addition to vibrant demand across the markets we serve, some of our existing projects are expected to spawn significant incremental work, which bolsters our confidence that our backlog will remain elevated.
For example, we anticipate adding approximately $1 billion of additional backlog in the second half of the year for the finished trade scope of work for Phase 1 of our Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement project in New York. Also, some of our Building segment projects that are currently in the preconstruction phase are anticipated to advance to the construction phase later this year and the next year. The largest of these is a multibillion-dollar healthcare project in California expected to begin construction in late 2027, for which we currently only have a nominal amount of backlog. Let’s talk about some of the significant bidding opportunities we expect to pursue over the next 12 to 18 months. They include the multibillion-dollar Penn Station transformation project in New York, for which the U.S. Department of Transportation has recently announced a substantial amount of committed funding and for which the selected development team is expected to be chosen later this month.
The $1.4 billion I-535 Blatnik Bridge project in Minnesota, for which the selected contractor is expected to be announced next month; a multibillion-dollar additional segment of the California high-speed rail project bidding later this year; the $1 billion I-69 ORX Section 2 project connecting Indiana and Kentucky, also bidding later this year. The Sepulveda Transit Corridor program in Southern California believed to be valued at approximately $12 billion and expected to be awarded under multiple contracts with the initial contract expected to be bid next year. The $3.8 billion Southeast Gateway line also in Southern California and bidding next year, and the $3 billion Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal B project in New Jersey, very similar to the award-winning Terminal A project that we recently completed at the same airport.
This enormous number of significant opportunities I just mentioned doesn’t even include numerous projects we are pursuing in the Indo-Pacific region, which collectively total more than $4 billion and include military infrastructure improvements at Naval Base Guam, airport and harbor projects on the island of Yap and wharf and harbor improvement projects in the Republic of Palau. We also continue to have several large healthcare project opportunities on the West Coast and hospitality and gaming opportunities mostly in the Southwest. As a reminder, the majority of these opportunities start bidding and are expected to be awarded in the middle or second half of 2026 or to continue bidding through next year. Due to this timing and the significantly higher revenue we expect to recognize this year for work already in backlog, we continue to anticipate a modest sequential backlog reduction in the near term, followed by resumed backlog growth as we capture our share of major new projects.
We are confident in our ability to drive continued backlog growth over the medium to longer term even as we focus on profitability, free cash flow, earnings growth, quality and safety as our primary performance indicators. As you recall, last November, our Board of Directors authorized our first ever quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share, as well as a share repurchase program totaling $200 million. Today, the Board declared another $0.06 quarterly dividend, which will be paid on June 4. And earlier this year, in the first quarter, we completed the first repurchase under our share repurchase program, buying back approximately 278,000 shares on the open market for $20 million at an average price of approximately $72 per share. We expect to make additional opportunistic share buybacks moving forward under this authorization to return excess capital to shareholders.
Next, let’s turn to our outlook and guidance. First, I am pleased with the excellent start to the year as we delivered results in line with our expectations. We continue to benefit from favorable macroeconomic tailwinds that are driving strong sustained market demand across all segments, which is a great sign for future awards, growth and value creation. Our business is resilient, and we remain confident in our outlook for consistent revenue and earnings growth over the next several years. Based on our outlook and assessment of the current market, we continue to anticipate double-digit revenue growth and strong earnings in 2026 with even higher earnings expected in 2027, by which time many of the newer large projects in our backlog should be in the construction phase.

Accordingly, we are affirming our 2026 adjusted EPS guidance in the range of $4.90 to $5.30 per share. Our guidance continues to factor in a significant amount of contingency for unknown or unexpected outcomes and developments in 2026, including the possibility of a lower-than-anticipated success rate for future project pursuits, the potential for project delays, slower ramp-ups for our newer projects and any unexpected settlements and/or adverse legal decisions associated with the resolution of disputes. We also continue to expect strong operating cash generation in 2026 and beyond due to increasing project execution activities on our newer mega projects and the anticipated resolution of remaining legacy disputes. Before I turn the call over to Ryan, I’d like to comment on one of those remaining legacy disputes.
Last month, we received an unfavorable legal ruling and were assessed damages of approximately $175 million related to a dispute with our customer regarding the W/Element Hotel in Philadelphia, a building segment project that we completed in 2021, and that opened to the public the same year. We strongly disagree with the ruling and firmly believe it does not reflect the merits of the case. It’s respectful to the legal process and since it is ongoing litigation, we will not comment specifically about what we believe to be significant legal flaws in the court’s decision. We do intend to appeal and we’ll continue to vigorously pursue all appropriate legal remedies to defend ourselves against the damages awarded to the customer and to collect amounts contractually due to us.
The appeal process is likely to take 2 years, perhaps even longer, so this recent development represents another step along the path of an ongoing lengthy legal dispute. As a result of the ruling and after a close review of our claims against the owner and certain subcontractors, we recognized an immaterial charge to earnings in the first quarter. Thank you. And with that, I will turn the call over to Ryan to discuss the details of our financial results.
Ryan Soroka: Thanks, Gary. Good day, everyone. I will begin by discussing our results for the first quarter, after which I’ll provide some commentary on our balance sheet and our 2026 guidance assumptions. All comparative references will be against the first quarter of last year, unless otherwise stated. As Gary mentioned, we generated a record $147 million of operating cash for the quarter, up 542% year-over-year and well ahead of any first quarter cash flow result ever. I’m pleased to see our cash flow momentum from last year’s record year continuing this year. Our cash flow this quarter was largely driven by collections from newer and ongoing projects, reflecting a significant increase in project execution and improved working capital management with only an immaterial amount attributable to the resolution of disputes.
We anticipate that we will continue to generate solid cash flow in 2026 and beyond, with most of our cash to be derived from organic operations, that is, from the new and existing projects and enhanced from time to time by cash collected following dispute resolutions. Revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $1.4 billion, up 11%, with the growth primarily due to increased project execution activities on certain large, newer and higher-margin Civil and Building segment projects, especially in the Northeast. This included, among others, the Midtown Bus Terminal Phase 1 project, the Manhattan Tunnel project, the Manhattan Jail and the Newark AirTrain replacement. Civil segment revenue was $698 million, up 14% due to increased project execution activities on some of the projects I just mentioned, which have substantial scope of work remaining.
It was the Civil segment’s highest revenue of any first quarter ever, reflecting the solid sustained demand that Gary noted. Building segment revenue was $473 million, up slightly compared to the first quarter last year, with the segment’s revenue growth expected to increase substantially later this year. All our major Building segment projects, including the Brooklyn and Manhattan Jail projects in New York and a large healthcare campus project in California are running smoothly and also have substantial scope of work remaining. Specialty segment revenue was $219 million, up a solid 24%, with the segment’s growth continuing to be primarily driven by increased activities on various electrical and mechanical projects in New York and Texas. The Specialty segment’s strong revenue growth began in the second half of 2025, and we expect the growth to continue this year and next year as those projects and other newer mega projects advance.
Our operating income for the quarter was $59 million, down 9% compared to last year. Our operating income was driven by improved contributions from each of our 3 segments, but those contributions were offset by a $23 million increase in share-based compensation expense in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to our stock price being substantially higher in 2026 as compared to the same period last year, which affects the fair value of liability-classified awards. As a reminder, our share-based compensation expense is expected to decrease in 2026 and to decline much more significantly next year as some of these liability classified awards vested at the end of last year and most of the remaining awards will vest by the end of 2026.
We are no longer awarding liability classified awards, which should meaningfully reduce earnings volatility starting next year. Civil segment operating income was $88 million, up 10% and the highest first quarter result ever for the segment, with a corresponding segment operating margin of 12.6%, a very solid result for a first quarter given typical seasonality. The increase in operating income was primarily due to contributions associated with the increased project execution activities on various higher-margin projects that are ramping up, partially offset by an unfavorable adjustment of $16 million in the first quarter of 2026 on a mass-transit project in California due to changes in estimates resulting from ongoing negotiations of change orders, which we expect will generate significant cash once they are ultimately approved.
We anticipate continued Civil segment margins in the range of 12% to 15%. Building segment operating income was $16 million, up a strong 56% with the increase driven by contributions from certain newer higher-margin projects in New York and California with substantial scope of work remaining. The segment’s operating margin was 3.5% compared to 2.3% last year, with the improvement primarily driven by contributions related to the increased higher-margin project execution activities I mentioned. We anticipate Building segment margins in the range of 3% to 6%, fueled by continued contributions from certain higher-margin projects. Specialty Contractors segment operating income was approximately $600,000 for the quarter compared to a loss from construction operations of $7 million for the first quarter of last year.
The improvement compared to last year was primarily due to contributions related to increased project execution activities on the electrical and mechanical projects I mentioned earlier. Many of these projects are in the early stages and are expected to ramp up substantially over the next several years. The Specialty segment had a handful of small immaterial unfavorable project adjustments this quarter related to legacy disputes that adversely affected its results for the quarter, though the segment was still profitable and its results reflected a significant improvement year-over-year. Corporate G&A expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $45 million compared to $18 million last year, with the increase mostly due to the substantially higher share-based compensation expense that I mentioned.
Income tax expense for the quarter was $17 million with a corresponding effective tax rate of 30.1% for the period compared to $13 million last year with a corresponding effective tax rate of 23.2% in that period. The higher effective tax rate this year is attributable to the significant increase in share-based compensation expense, which is almost entirely nondeductible. Net income attributable to Tutor Perini for the first quarter of 2026 was $26 million or $0.48 of GAAP earnings per share compared to $28 million or $0.53 of GAAP earnings per share in the first quarter of last year. Excluding the impact of share-based compensation expense, net of the associated tax benefit, adjusted net income attributable to Tutor Perini for the first quarter of 2026 was $55 million or $1.03 of adjusted earnings per share compared to $34 million or $0.65 of adjusted earnings per share in the same quarter last year.
As you can see, our adjusted EPS was up a strong 58% year-over-year, reflecting the high margin contribution and outstanding performance we are seeing from our projects and backlog. Now I’ll address the balance sheet. Our record cash generation enabled us to continue paying down our total debt, which stood at $399 million at the end of the first quarter. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents exceeding total debt by $404 million, a very strong net cash position and $533 million better than we were just 1 year ago when we were in a net debt position. Our cash available for general corporate purposes was $321 million at the end of the first quarter of 2026, up 18% compared to $271 million at the end of 2025. Our balance sheet is stronger than it’s ever been, and our solid net cash position provides us with excellent capital allocation flexibility.
We anticipate refinancing our existing senior notes by around midyear to secure a more favorable interest rate and extend our debt maturities, which should result in substantially reduced interest expense going forward. Lastly, all assumptions I provided last quarter pertaining to our 2026 guidance remain unchanged. Thank you. And with that, I will turn the call back over to Gary.
Gary Smalley: Thank you, Ryan. To recap, we have kicked off 2026 with excellent first quarter results marked by record operating cash flow of $147 million, solid revenue growth, adjusted EPS of $1.03, which was up 58% year-over-year and continued strong backlog of approximately $20 billion. This backlog underpins the confidence we have in our ability to deliver double-digit revenue and earnings growth and continued strong annual cash flow in 2026 and beyond as our newer projects progress through design and into construction. Our business continues to perform well, and we expect our solid project execution to continue. The long-term outlook for Tutor Perini remains very bright given today’s backlog of long-duration, higher-margin projects with improved contractual terms, operational improvements we have made in our Specialty Contractors segment, persistent favorable macroeconomic tailwinds and strong public and private customer funding that is fueling vibrant market demand and numerous major bidding opportunities.
And importantly, we also believe that we are getting closer to the time when all of our segments will be firing on all cylinders, which will allow us to demonstrate more fully our growth and earnings potential. Thank you. And with that, I will turn the call over to the operator for your questions.
Q&A Session
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Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners.
Michael Dudas: I share my prayers for the family and those families as well. First, Gary, on — so you talked about several large projects that will be coming up for bid second half of this year, 2027. But maybe you can assess that relative to what projects may be rolling off in some of those regions. And it seems like there’s so much business that can be done in the Northeast, especially in New York area, certainly in California. I mean, again, all over, but how you balance like where the opportunities are, your capacity and maybe even to think a little bit more on Guam because you mentioned some pretty large numbers and some opportunities in the Pacific, which certainly should have a pretty good tail given all the money that’s been spent over there.
Gary Smalley: Yes. Great, Mike. First of all, some of these opportunities are already in the hopper, so to speak. They’ve been submitted. We’re waiting on the results. So we should know something as we talk about in some cases, later this month, sometime in some cases, next month. So capacity, look, you should feel — just rest assured, we’re not going to pursue something we can’t handle. We do have some work that’s winding down in California, and we’ll use some of those resources to staff this other work. But all the work we’re pursuing, we have people ready and raring to go, and we will execute the work soundly. Yes. So I don’t think that should be a concern. If I would look at what’s out there and what we would expect to book, provided we get anywhere close to our fair share, I would say that it’s going to be by far a net add.
There are just so many opportunities, as you noted. The opportunities that we have as we sit here today and we compare that to the last time we talked, there’s more out there. Some of it’s moved closer to fruition. In other cases, there are new opportunities that we’re pursuing. So the pipeline is rich, and we think we’re well positioned for a fair amount of these opportunities. And then if we get to a point, and we would love for this to happen as we get to a point where we can’t handle any more, then we’ll sit on the sidelines. But we’re not there yet. We don’t think we will be there at this point. And we look forward to when we get together another quarter or 2 to report on increased backlog as these opportunities come home.
Michael Dudas: I appreciate that. And my follow-up, Gary, would be, as you assess the margin performance, which again, for Q1 seemed quite solid across the board, but the cadence of it as we move through 2026, is it just a function of ramping up the volume and capacity? And are there some other areas where between the low and high end of those ranges where what could help you achieve those versus maybe pushing them out to, say, 2027?
Gary Smalley: It’s exactly what you said. It’s about volume. The first quarter is always a slower quarter for us. It’s difficult to estimate what the first quarter is going to be. It’s harder than the others because you don’t know the extent of — we didn’t know we’re going to have all the rain that we had in Southern California, for example. And we didn’t know that New York out your way, Mike, I had a trip that I canceled because of the weather being so bad and airport being closed and things of that nature. So you just don’t know. But as we progress during — through the year, the volume goes up, also our margins are expected to go up. These larger projects that we’ve been booking, they’re ramping up right now. They’re only going to get stronger as the year progresses.
And some of that is the weather, but the other factor is that they’re just early in their development. And so they’re going to start blowing and going. Some already have and others will gain more momentum as we continue. So I would expect ’26 to gain strength each quarter and ’27 will just be a follow-on to that.
Operator: Our next question is from Judah Aronovitz with UBS.
Judah Aronovitz: On for Steve Fisher. The first question, I noticed that you changed the language around 2027 EPS expectations to significantly higher than the upper end of the 2026 guide from just higher. Is that right? And if so, I guess, what makes you more confident now relative to 3 months ago? Can you talk about your confidence level in achieving this level of earnings in ’27? And specifically, is the work already in backlog? Or is there still more work to book?
Gary Smalley: Yes. If we didn’t book any more work, ’27 is going to be a blowout year as is ’26. But there’s going to be more work to book, so it will be even better. So what gives us a little bit more optimism or confidence, Judah, as time has gone by. We see how things have developed. We see how the new work is progressing. We see how settlement discussions are progressing. So all those things together make us as confident as we can be. And look, we didn’t — we affirm guidance. We didn’t raise guidance, and that’s always something at least as we go forward that you should expect is maybe a raise or at least consideration for it. We did consider it this time because we do feel a lot better about how things are shaping up. But we also want to be conservative in our approach.
So yes, we do feel more confident, and it’s just the way all the details are coming together right now. We’re very pleased with where we are with respect to the execution of all this new work and also very optimistic about building on this great backlog we already have.
Judah Aronovitz: Okay. That makes sense. Good to hear. And then my follow-up, relative to inflation, what are you seeing in the business now? And how comfortable are you with your contingencies in areas where you don’t have the ability to reindex to inflation?
Gary Smalley: Yes. Good question because you even indicated that in some cases, you implied that we do have the ability to reindex with inflation, and that is the case. But in those instances where we’re still being impacted by inflation as everyone else is, look, we’re covered. We’re very conservative in how we address contingency, but also we have this buyout that we talked about before on calls where early on we look at firming up commitments with respect to subcontractors and also vendors to make sure that we pass that risk on to them if there’s any change in pricing. So we’re good with respect to inflation.
Operator: Our next question is from Liam Burke with B. Riley Securities.
Liam Burke: Gary, your balance sheet is much stronger. Your cash position is great. You’re returning cash to shareholders. Does your strong liquidity position allow you to undertake larger projects without having to consider a joint venture partner?
Gary Smalley: You know what, it absolutely does. And that’s what our preference is, of course, because we have great joint venture partners, and we appreciate what they bring to the table. But at the same time, if we can do the work on our own and not have to share 20% or 25% or 30% margin in cash with them, that’s the ideal position that we’d like to be in. And certainly, when you’re a stronger company as we are now compared to a year ago and the year before that, then that does offer us opportunities to do more things on our own.
Liam Burke: Great. And in terms of you’re talking about bidding activity and potential projects expanding, is that increasing the competitive field or are things pretty much the same? Part of it is that data center activity has pulled some of the competitors off the projects that you’re bidding on?
Gary Smalley: Yes. I would say that if there is a change, it’s — from last quarter, there’s probably not much of a change, to be honest with you. But look, the trend has been to be less competitive and whether it’s data centers or just the volume of work, such as what we’ve talked about. So certainly, there’s not going to be more competition, at least in the short term, medium term or even as far as we can see looking out because of all the — just the magnitude of work and so few of us that can do the complex work that we pursue. So I would say that the competition is probably a little less and would likely be — continue to be less than what it is currently. But certainly, we don’t see new competitors coming into the market right now.
Operator: Our next question is from Min Cho with Texas Capital Securities.
Min Cho: My first question has to do with Black Construction. So I know that’s a higher-margin business for you. Can you talk about your annual run rate of revenue there and kind of what you have in backlog? And how big do you feel like that business can get? And if you can just talk about any of the bottlenecks to driving more growth from Black Construction?
Gary Smalley: In the past, what we’ve really steered away from talking too much about specific business units and what type of — what they bring to the overall consolidated Tutor Perini. Just, I guess — but to try to address your question in some way, we’re looking at Black. I won’t talk about revenue, but I’ll talk about backlog. It exceeds $1 billion. And if you look at the run rate, some of their work is 2, 3 years in duration. Other projects are a bit longer, maybe 4 or 5 years. And we’re looking to build that. We’ve got the capabilities there. It’s an extraordinary business for us, just very talented workforce. So look for that, it probably won’t double, but it could grow significantly from that beginning point.
Min Cho: Great. And then also your recent Army Corps MATOC award to support the energy resilience and conservation investment program. How much of that $2 billion is within TPC’s addressable business? And if you can just talk a little bit about the types of construction projects that are expected there?
Gary Smalley: Yes. All of it is within what we do and what we do well. And the type of work for that’s available under that MATOC is it varies. It can be building work, it can be civil work. It can be specialty work as well, specialty contractors work. Our workforce at Black and Guam and the surrounding areas, again, I mentioned before, it was very talented, but we’re very diversified. We can do whatever work is that’s out there. We also have PMSI as one of our business units. And likewise, they are very equipped in whatever part of the world that they operate to do all types of building work or all types of construction work. Their emphasis is generally more on the building side. But really between the 2 of those entities, we can do just about anything.
Min Cho: Excellent. And if I can just squeeze in one more question. Can you just talk a little bit about Tutor’s position currently on pursuing some of the mission-critical and high-tech projects like the data centers or semiconductor campuses?
Gary Smalley: Yes. So this is something that we’re looking at very closely. We do — we are actually doing some data center work with — on the specialty side. And we are looking to — we’re exploring ways to expand that currently. So we want to make sure that we don’t give up the core market because we know one day that — and who knows how long down the road that will be, whether it’s 5 years or 10 years down the road that the data center work at some point in time probably won’t be there, at least not as strong as it is now. So we want to make sure that we’re still well positioned to do the work that is our standard bread and butter. But at the same time, the data center work is very exciting for us. We see it as an opportunity that — where we can expand margins and increase revenue as well.
So we’re looking at it very closely. And I think not too far down the road, certainly before the year is up, you’ll hear more from us as far as maybe new strategy to explore some of that market or at least explore — we’re already doing. And we’ll talk more publicly about it at some point, too. We just — we’re not quite there, but we’re getting closer.
Operator: Our last question is from Adam Thalhimer with Thompson, Davis.
Adam Thalhimer: I like Min’s question. Can I just keep going on that? Are you thinking that you might look at data center work for other segments or just within the specialties?
Gary Smalley: Yes. Right now, it’s a little too early to get out in front of any more than what I said, Adam. But Specialty is probably where we see the most, we’ll say, current type opportunities. And — but we’re looking at other areas as well. And it’s something that we’re talking about as management. We’ll talk more about it with the Board as we learn a little bit more. But certainly, there’s a lot of excitement internally as we look at opportunities that could be out there for Tutor Perini.
Adam Thalhimer: Okay. Great. The buyback, I was curious, good to see you do $20 million in Q1. How would you like to pace that from here?
Gary Smalley: Well, it’s certainly something that would we buy back at $72 on an average price, right, I think that’s right. And so…
Adam Thalhimer: Nicely done.
Gary Smalley: Yes. And we — there’s some — it wasn’t without some debate internally because we’re a stock that has grown quite well over the last year or so. And some of us felt a strong conviction to even buy with our own money, such as myself. And I’ve done that a couple of times in the last several months. So for me, it was pretty easy on the buyback. Now that we’re 90-ish or something like that, it’s not as compelling for us. But at the same time, we know that we’ve got a lot of upward trajectory that’s to come. And so I think there will be — we’re going to be opportunistic, and I think there will be opportunities in front of us. But we’re not really planning it to say, okay, we’re going to do X million dollars every quarter or 6 months.
We’ll just see where the opportunities are and weigh that with the cash needs and how quickly we’re building our cash balances and then go from there. So I know it’s not a specific answer for you, but we’re very aware that we’ve got a lot of room left with the buyback. We are very bullish on where the — what the opportunities are right now with — very bullish on what the share price could continue to do. So either on a personal basis or a company basis, I think there will be more coming. But again, we just don’t know exactly when.
Adam Thalhimer: Great. Ryan, the refinancing you said is coming in the next few months. Can you give us a sense for the target structure and potential interest rate savings?
Ryan Soroka: Yes, sure. I think at this point, we’re looking to refinance the notes 1:1. Maybe they can change a little. We’re looking at the interest savings of somewhere between 400 or 500 basis points as we look at the marketplace. Again, a little — there’s still a little bit of volatility out there related to some of the geopolitical issues going on. So that remains to be seen. But I think at the same time, what we also intend to do is take a look at our credit facility, right, and looking to upsize that and extend those maturities. So ultimately, the goal is to refinance the notes with significant interest savings and then extend the maturity and have some — extend the maturity on the credit facility with a significant extension in maturity as well.
Gary Smalley: Our goal is to get somewhere with a 6 handle compared to the horrible rate that we have right now on the bonds.
Adam Thalhimer: Yes, that would be great. And then last one for me. You gave the margin outlook for the other segments, Ryan, but I didn’t hear it for Specialty. I was curious what the range is there that you’re working towards? And also, what percent of their work now is for other TPC segments?
Ryan Soroka: Sure. For 2026, we’re probably looking in the, call it, 1%, 2% to 3% range. Ultimately, we expect that specialty to get up into the 5% to 8% range. I mean, look, we still have a little bit of overhang with some legacy disputes. That’s why I’m kind of tempering 2026 in that 1% to 3% range. And at this point, Specialty’s backlog, about 2/3 of it is with — is on, call it, other Tutor Perini subsidiary projects.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Gary Smalley for closing comments.
Gary Smalley: Thank you, everyone, for your participation today. We look forward to continuing to deliver excellent results and to speaking with you again next quarter. Thanks again.
Operator: This concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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