Quanta Services - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 2024 delivered record-scale results: revenue $6.55B, GAAP diluted EPS $2.03, adjusted diluted EPS $2.94, adjusted EBITDA $737.8M, free cash flow $575.4M; year-end total backlog rose to $34.54B and RPO to $16.76B.
• Management issued FY2025 guidance calling for double‑digit growth: revenue $26.6–$27.1B, GAAP EPS $6.85–$7.45, adjusted EPS $9.90–$10.50, EBITDA $2.49–$2.62B, adjusted EBITDA $2.66–$2.80B, CFO $1.70–$2.25B, FCF $1.20–$1.70B.
• Electric segment operating margin improved (13.1% in Q4) and Renewable segment ended at all‑time high backlog; Underground margins softened, but management expects improvement in 2025 with industrial recovery and accretive M&A.
• Structural catalysts: accelerating data center/AI power demand, large transmission programs, and fiber build wins (e.g., Lumen long-haul fiber award selection) should support continued backlog growth and multi‑year EPS expansion.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Record financial outputs in Q4: revenue $6.55B, adjusted EPS $2.94, FCF $575.4M, year‑end backlog $34.54B and RPO $16.76B; Renewable segment backlog reached all‑time highs.
• Electric Power Infrastructure Solutions operating margin expanded to 13.1% in Q4 (vs 10.5% prior year), reflecting execution and portfolio strength.
• CFO emphasized cash flow outperformance: “our cash flow in the fourth quarter and for the full year exceeded the upper end of our free cash flow guidance expectations”.
• CEO tone on secular tailwinds: “accelerating demand for power and infrastructure solutions… Quanta stands as a critical partner in building the future of energy and technology”.

What Went Wrong

• Underground Utility & Infrastructure Solutions margins compressed to 3.6% in Q4 (vs 6.6% prior year), with storm-related shifts and industrial timing in 2H impacting mix; management targets improvement in 2025.
• Non‑GAAP reconciling items were elevated: amortization expense $115.8M in Q4 and $383.0M for FY2024; foreign currency translation losses tied to Latin American liquidation affected results.
• S&P Global consensus estimates could not be retrieved during this session; beat/miss vs Street cannot be assessed at this time (see Estimates Context) [GetEstimates errors].

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning and welcome to the Quanta Services Q4 and FY 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A Q&A session will follow management's prepared remarks, and we ask that you please hold all questions until that time. I will then provide instructions for the Q&A session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Kip Rupp, Vice President of Investor Relations, for introductory remarks.

Kip Rupp (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you and welcome, everyone, to the Quanta Services Q4 and FY 2024 earnings conference call. This morning, we issued a press release announcing our Q4 and FY 2024 results, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at quantaservices.com. This morning, we also posted our Q4 and FY 2024 operational and financial commentary and our 2025 outlook expectation summary on Quanta's Investor Relations website. While management will make brief introductory remarks during this morning's call, the operational and financial commentary is intended to largely replace management's prepared remarks, allowing additional time for questions from the institutional investment community. Please remember that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, February 20, 2025, and therefore you are advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of any replay of this call.

This call will include forward-looking statements and information intended to qualify under the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements reflecting expectations, intentions, assumptions, or beliefs about future events or financial performance that do not solely relate to historical and current facts. You should not place undue reliance on these statements, as they involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict or beyond Quanta's control, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. We will also present certain historical and forecasted non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and operational and financial commentary. Please refer to these documents for additional information regarding our forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures.

Lastly, please sign up for email alerts through the Investor Relations section of quantaservices.com to receive notifications of news releases and other information, and follow Quanta IR and Quanta Services on the social media channels listed on our website. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Mr. Duke Austin, Quanta's President and CEO. Duke.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Thanks, Kip. This morning, we reported our Q4 and FY 2024 results, which included double-digit growth in revenues and earnings and a number of record financial metrics. Total backlog at year-end was $34.5 billion, and notably, Renewable Energy Infrastructure Solutions segment 12-month and total backlog achieved all-time highs. Our ability to deliver consistent, profitable growth is a testament to the strength of our portfolio approach, a diversified solutions-based strategy that enables us to adapt to evolving industry dynamics while delivering mission-critical infrastructure. Quanta has produced record revenues seven of the last eight years, seven consecutive years of record Adjusted EBITDA, and eight consecutive years of record Adjusted diluted earnings per share. These results were made possible by more than 58,000 dedicated employees and our industry-leading operational and financial platform.

2024 was another successful year for Quanta strategically, operationally, and financially, and while there are always areas for improvement, we are proud of our many accomplishments during this year, and we continue to look forward with excitement towards the multi-year strategic initiatives we are working on and the goals we expect to achieve in this and the coming years. We continue to see significant opportunity to advance our growth strategy and are pacing well against our multi-year financial targets, including double-digit EPS growth and double-digit returns. Our strategic initiatives are enhancing our service lines and capabilities while also expanding our customer base and therefore enlarging our total addressable market opportunity for both organic growth and strategic capital deployment. The energy and infrastructure landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation, and Quanta is positioned at its center.

Utilities across the United States are experiencing and forecasting meaningful increases in power demand for the first time in two decades, which is being driven by the adoption of new technologies and related infrastructure, including data centers and artificial intelligence, the energy transition, and policies intended to strategically reinforce domestic manufacturing and supply chain resources. This increasing demand, coupled with tightening power generation capacity, underscores the urgent need for large-scale grid modernization and energy infrastructure development. Quanta's portfolio approach uniquely positions us to support our clients as they navigate this evolving landscape. Our diversified service lines, self-perform capabilities, and craft-skilled workforce give us the flexibility to deploy resources where they create the most value across geographies, industries, and service lines. We believe our collaborative, solution-based approach is valued by our clients more than ever.

We are positioning Quanta for decades of expected necessary infrastructure investment and believe our service line diversity creates platforms for growth that expand our total addressable market. Our portfolio approach and focus on craft-skilled labor is a strategic advantage that provides us the ability to manage risk and shift resources across service lines and geographies, which we believe will become increasingly important as load growth, electrification, and the energy transition accelerates. We believe our portfolio approach positions us well to allocate resources to opportunities we find the most economically attractive and to achieve operating efficiencies and consistent financial results. I will now turn the call over to Jayshree Desai, Quanta's CFO, to provide a few remarks about our results and 2025 guidance, and then we will take your questions. Jayshree.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

Thanks, Duke, and good morning, everyone. Quanta completed the year with Q4 revenues of $6.6 billion, net income attributable to common stock of $305.1 million, or $2.03 per diluted share, and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.94. Adjusted EBITDA was $737.8 million, or 11.3% of revenues. Of note, our cash flow in the Q4 and for the full year exceeded the upper end of our free cash flow guidance expectations. For the Q4 and full year of 2024, we had free cash flow of $575.4 million and $1.6 billion, respectively, with our full-year free cash flow a record. Our earnings and cash flow performance allowed us to end the Q4 with ample liquidity and a balance sheet that supports both our organic growth expectations and the opportunistic investment of capital to generate incremental returns for our stockholders.

To that end, subsequent to the end of 2024, we acquired two companies for aggregate upfront consideration of approximately $562 million of cash and stock. This morning, we provided our full-year 2025 financial expectations, which calls for another year of profitable growth with record revenues, improved margins, and opportunity for double-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share. We believe our expectations demonstrate the strength of our portfolio approach to the business, our commitment to our long-term strategy, our favorable end-market trends, and our competitive position in the marketplace. As mentioned in our earnings release, beginning with three months ending March 31, 2025, we will report our results under two reportable segments: Electric Infrastructure Solutions and Underground Utility and Infrastructure Solutions. The new Electric Infrastructure Solutions segment combines the previous Electric Power Infrastructure Solutions and Renewable Energy Infrastructure Solutions segments.

This new segment reporting reflects how the business is managed and resources are allocated and better reflects the positioning of our strategies and comprehensive solutions for our growing and increasingly converging addressable markets. Additional details and commentary about our 2025 financial guidance can be found in our Operational and Financial Commentary and Outlook's expectation summary, both of which are posted on our IR website. In summary, we are executing well on our strategic plan and are pacing well against our multi-year financial targets, including double-digit EPS growth and double-digit returns. We ended 2024 with record backlog, and our end markets have never been better, and we see opportunity for further strength in the coming years. With that, we are happy to answer your questions. Operator.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now move to our Q&A session. We ask that all participants limit themselves to one question. If you have additional questions, you may re-queue and ask, and those questions will be addressed time permitting. If you have joined via the webinar, please use the raise hand icon, which can be found in the bottom of your webinar application. If you have joined by phone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. When you are called on, please unmute your line and ask your question. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question comes from Chad Dillard with Bernstein. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Chad Dillard (Senior Analyst of US Machinery)

Hey, good morning, guys.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Morning.

Chad Dillard (Senior Analyst of US Machinery)

So just a big picture question here. So what does the shift from investing in training data centers to inference mean for Quanta and the broader grid? Is there any difference in labor needs, design approach, grid use? Is it a positive, negative, or net neutral?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

I mean, when we look at data centers and what it does, before AI, there was still significant demand. After AI, there's more demand. How much demand? I don't know. What I do see is we see firm commitments of generation at our customer level. You can look at it. You can point to it. It's well over 50 gigs in the 100 gigs, honestly. So when you see that type of demand on energy, the type of data centers and how you're looking at it, we're not looking at it in that way. We're just seeing the demand on our infrastructure and what we need to build. We're booking backlog against it. So we just see a great market there. And from DeepSeek to AI chips and what that does, we're not concerned with that at this point. We just see that demand that's firm.

Chad Dillard (Senior Analyst of US Machinery)

That's helpful, and just a second question just on the recent M&A that you guys did. So I guess, first of all, what sort of revenue contribution should we be making in for 2025? And then on the civil business, how are you thinking about the mix of business going forward? Is this meant to support Quanta's core business, or are there going to be other ancillary verticals that you're going to be operating in, and then on the Australia expansion, I guess, what's your long-term view on Australia as an attractive market, and I guess, what is the market structure and how is Quanta positioned there with this acquisition?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. So basically, the civil solutions business, I think from my standpoint, the DNA, the culture of the company, we've known them a long time. I've known them for decades. I've passed by their office my whole career. So I know the family. It's a great family business. It fits our DNA. And it also is something that the company itself has synergies against. Obviously, we don't put those in the deal. I feel like when we look at those solutions that we can provide, it gives us a holistic approach. Our customers are asking for it. We can deliver it on a holistic basis and really add value to the overall solutions of what we're trying to accomplish.

If you look at a 1,000-acre solar site, look at a 1,000-acre, 10,000-acre data center, you look at all the things that we do and try to provide solutions to, whether it's LNG sites, it doesn't matter. We will take the assets, the people, which are the core to it, and go and deliver against our own business as well as others. So it's a solution that people are asking for, and we want to be holistic when we look at it and self-perform more capabilities and give ourselves more flexibility as we look at the markets. In Australia, we continue to invest in Australia. The front side of the business down there is something that we've said all along that we'll continue to invest in. Great companies, great markets. We're market leaders in the renewable business down in Australia.We like it long-term and feel like we can continue to invest in the country. So, great rule of law and obviously gives us a lot of flexibility. So, we're excited about that market as well. I'll let Jayshree comment on the revenues.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

We're not going to discuss any individual acquisition, but we'll tell you that the two acquisitions, the majority of it is captured in our U&I segment, and we did give you guidance in that around what the inorganic contribution in our guide is related to that.

Chad Dillard (Senior Analyst of US Machinery)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from Ati Modak with Goldman Sachs. Please unmute and ask your question.

Ati Modak (VP of Energy Services and E&Ps)

Yeah. Hi, good morning, team. Maybe I was wondering if you can provide some color on the margin performance in the electric power segment, the factors that drove that, and how much of the margin improvement should we consider as structural going forward?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. I mean, we executed well in the quarter. We've done some acquisitions there with Cupertino that are in the segment. Obviously, it had a lower margin profile, but a better return. So I do think when we look at it, the margins that we've stated in the past, 10.5%, 11% type framework, 12% on the outer years where if you've got a lot of utilizations and things of that nature in the business. But in general, we said all along it was back half loaded. We felt like the electric business was going to be strong in the second half. It was. I can only say that the field and the personnel that we've had out there and the structures that we put together is what's delivering it, and I think as we see the markets, we'll continue to deliver earnings in the 10.5%, 11% range in the segment.

That's basically where we're at and where we'll be on a go-forward basis. And so I think no matter what we do in that segment, that's kind of how you should look at the framework going forward. Yeah, there'll be some years that are above it due to some factors here or there. But given what we see in the market, that's kind of the framework we see going forward, 10.5%-11%.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

Yeah. I think also just to add to it, if you look at our electric segment, you're seeing us at over 10%. And that's after taking into consideration that we have reduced storm from where we were in 2024. It takes out the Peru impact. And even with that, we're still in double-digit segment revenue. And I think that you should take comfort that we're going to continue operating at that level. And the performance of the company from last year is going to go into 2025 as well.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Makes sense. Thank you, Jayshree.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from the line of Jamie Cook with Truist Securities. Please are on the phone, Jamie. Star six will allow you to unmute.

Jamie Cook (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Hi. Can you hear me? Hey, can you hear me now?

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

Hey, Jamie.

Jamie Cook (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Oh, hey. Thanks, guys. I guess my first question, Duke, if you could frame the expectations for backlog growth in 2025, and in particular, can you talk to potential synergies or big awards that could be coming out of Cupertino? I know you guys were very successful with revenue synergies associated with Blattner. I'm just trying to understand what's going on with Cupertino and is that an opportunity for larger awards in 2025, but my second question, Jayshree, just, and I'm sorry if you missed this, I know on the cash flow guide, you sort of talked to it being more back-end loaded. Just how do we think about first half versus back half and what's driving that? Thank you.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Jamie. I think when we look at the business in totality, when we buy these platform companies, we don't build synergies into the discussions that we have or the way we value them. But what we do see is when the total adjustable markets at TAMS on the business are something that goes unnoticed, the customer base goes unnoticed, those synergies show up. And you've seen them with Blattner as we've gotten farther along in the balance of plant, the things that we're able to do with these type customers, because there's convergence between technology, utilities, and the way we look at the data centers. And so the way that we're looking at the business certainly looks different, and those markets are different.

If you just look at the tech CapEx and you look at utility CapEx, utility CapEx is $200 billion plus, and then now technology is $300 billion plus, but probably let's just call it $150 billion in North America. The addressable markets that Quanta serves and how we converge in the nexus of the middle of it really puts us in a different position on larger projects. So I expect our backlog to be at record levels. It could CAGR at record levels. It wouldn't surprise me. But I do expect us to be at record levels throughout the year. I can't tell you exactly—you know how the backlog books, so I can't tell you exactly when that'll happen. But what I see, bigger projects, our ability to perform solutions is something that's unnoticed to the investment community. We are a solutions provider. I'll say it again, solutions provider.

And what we do and those solutions that we provide and how we collaborate with that customer will allow us to, and our addressable markets only are getting bigger. So it just allows us more opportunity. And I think we see it. We see it showing up. Super excited about where we sit and the strategies that we have going forward against that solution-based, how we use craft skill and engineering in that solution. So yeah, I mean, I fully expect us to book larger projects, but we'll continue the base business. We are not taking our eye off that either. So Jayshree.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

But hey, Jamie. Yeah, on a free cash flow, oh, sorry, go ahead.

Jamie Cook (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Yeah, I was just going to say specific to Cupertino is the question too, Duke. Anything specific to Cupertino in terms of a revenue center, larger awards in 2025?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

I think I inferred that, but yes, absolutely.

Jamie Cook (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Okay. Okay. All right. Sorry, Jayshree. Go on the cash flow question. Thanks.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

Yeah. On free cash flow, it's our typical profile, Jamie. It'll be back half weighted. Wouldn't expect too much in the first half, just given the nature of how our business operates. So I think you'll see similar cadence to what we've done the last couple of years.

Jamie Cook (Managing Director of Equity Research)

Okay. Thank you.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Thanks, Jamie.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from Steven Fisher with UBS. Please unmute and ask your question.

Steven Fisher (Managing Director, and Equity Research Analyst)

Thanks. Good morning. It was helpful to have the guidance for upper single-digit growth in generation versus the mid-singles and in high and low voltage. Just curious directionally, if you can give us a sense of what those growth rates were in 2024 so we can kind of see how it compares year over year. And then just kind of looking beyond 2025, conceptually, do you think generation should still grow kind of above the high and low voltage rate for the next couple of years? Or is this sort of like the renewables piece kind of driving generation, which is going to slow down while the grid part should be accelerating and those streams will cross, if you will?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yes. I mean, I think you're seeing growth across the business. You're seeing growth at the EPS line at the midpoint. What is it? 16% at the midpoint of EPS. And you're seeing growth on the top line, call it organic growth, 6-7%, 10% if you look at the whole company on the top. So we're seeing growth. One of the reasons that we're going to one segment is how we run the business. And we feel like that the convergence of the business. We spoke a lot last year around T&D. Actually, I explained it for four months that our transmission and distribution crews cross segments. It was very confusing to the investment community. It's not how we run the business. So we put it together.

So for us to go in and tell you how much generation growth or what is that, because there's substations, there's all kinds of different things. Our people cross from data centers to chip plants to hospitals, clean rooms. We move all across. So we're going to optimize our people against the markets. We're not making a specific manufacturing, anything manufacturing where it's only specific to one segment or one TAM. I mean, we're addressing across a large customer base. So we like the way we're set up. And we're not going to get into guidance on little pieces of the segment because it doesn't matter to us. What matters is the markets are growing. All the business is growing. We're putting up at the midpoint of the range, 10 plus. You see growth all across it.

So, we feel like that all the markets that we're in are growing, and we can move and be nimble across them and provide those solutions that we've discussed on a go-forward basis. It's how we're going to run the business, how we're going to talk about the business. And we have growth, and we see growth. You can see the backlog. I welcome you to look at the backlog and see what we put up in the renewable segment alone, which I believe we said that last quarter that we would put it up, and we did. And those kind of numbers are staying there. And they're not just 12-month backlog. It's long-term backlog in the 2026, 2027, and 2028. So we see growth. And I think you can comfort yourself on the demand you see for generation. It's just a supply and demand issue. We've said this.

The demand on generation, it doesn't matter. It's going to be renewables. It's going to be gas-fired generation. It's going to continue. And you can see it. It's right there. And then we're talking about it daily. So we're optimistic. We like the growth. We're not going to get into the little pieces of the segment. That's not who we are. We're a solution provider.

Steven Fisher (Managing Director, and Equity Research Analyst)

Sounds good. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Please, Julian. Star six will allow you to unmute.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Power, Utilities and Clean Energy Equity Analyst)

Excellent. Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for the time. I appreciate it. Maybe just to come back to that last point here briefly, just on the renewable front real quickly. As you think about some of the headlines here under the new administration, can you speak a little bit to your confidence in the execution on the SunZia project specifically, both in terms of operations and permit considerations across federal lands? I suspect it's largely intact, but I just want to make sure we've checked that off.

And then separately and related here, as you think about this resegmentation, I think you were alluding to it a moment ago, but if you were to resegment, right, again, just to use the hypothetical and brief, can you speak as to how that backlog would translate into compounding revenue as it stands today? I suspect some folks are looking at this and saying, "Well, is there something about a deceleration of the renewables business?" Clearly, the backlog data points today would suggest otherwise. But if you can speak to that even more clearly than you just alluded to a moment ago, I'd appreciate it.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah, Julien. Thanks. SunZia, first of all, we're doing great. We're progressing well. I fully expect us to complete. We're not seeing any permitting issues on it. We're well past that. And I want to talk a little bit about SunZia because I think people are worried about the replacement. If you break SunZia down and you go two and a half-year project, if you look at the wind piece, it's basically two jobs a year. And we're not worried about replacing SunZia. We've already replaced it. It's in the backlog. And then on the transmission line, yes, it's a big line, but we replace that as well. And so I'm not concerned at all with our ability to replace SunZia going forward. And I think that's a misnomer in the investment community. I want to get that out there and say we're not worried.

Second, when we're talking about generation, we're seeing renewable generation growth. We're seeing it in outer years. We're looking at 2026, 2027, and 2028. We put growth up in 2025. We'll put growth up in 2026. We're not concerned at this point with that. And yes, there's going to be gas generation getting built. We see it. We've said it all along. It's 20%-30%. But when you start ordering turbines that are 36-48 months out, what are you going to do between now and then? And I still believe even when you get turbines in, when you start to see that, you've still got to build renewables behind it and fill up the lines.

And when I look at the cost of renewables at the way I'm looking at it and the way everyone should, we got to fill the lines up with renewables, gas, batteries, everything possible because that's what matters. And people are underestimating transmission. The real issue is we need to build transmission in North America to really fully get the capabilities of all forms of energy. So I'm not worried about growth, but we need to get the permitting straight to get the transmission built.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

Julien, just to be clear, we are resegmenting starting Q1.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. Yeah, we're resegmenting Q1, for sure.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Power, Utilities and Clean Energy Equity Analyst)

Yeah. No, absolutely. Indeed, and if I can pick up on that last point quickly, because these RTOs have really released quite substantive increases in their transmission planning processes in the last quarter or so. What's the timeline and cadence that you're expecting for some of that to flow into your backlog? I get that there is some kind of lag here. It could be a couple of quarters or so. How do you think about that across these? Because the numbers are really quite staggering in the last three months.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah, I'm glad you noticed. What I would say is I do think we're having those discussions today and before they even came out. I think, Steve was talking about the larger projects. Someone should look at those queues and see what those say. And that's on top of their already ongoing capital. Those are big projects that are both in mainly all the RTOs, for that matter. So you're starting to see bigger work, and we're having those discussions on a daily basis, and I like our chances.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith (Power, Utilities and Clean Energy Equity Analyst)

All right, well, best of luck.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from the line of Steve Fleischmann with Wolfe Research. Please dial star six, unmute, and ask your question. Again, Steve, that's star six to unmute. We can hear you. Please go ahead.

Steve Fleischmann (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Okay. Sorry about that.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Steve.

Steve Fleischmann (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Hi. So I think you answered the question on renewables that it sounds like the tailwinds are still there that you're seeing despite the change in administration and some of the tariffs, other things that have come up. Just, I would just ask, is there anything that you're watching or wary of there? But certainly didn't look like it with the backlog increase you got. Second question is you mentioned a lot of focus on gas, and that seems to keep increasing. I know you don't want to be in the gas turbine business, but just do you see kind of the pieces of your coming together for more growth in your undergrounding business over the next several years as this does seem to be likely to ramp up meaningfully looking out?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yes, Steve. First of all, we do look at it. I mean, we're looking at the administration on PTCs and how that would impact our customers. I think we watch that closely. There's a lot of safe harboring. We feel good about our top 10 clients, and they're very sophisticated. And I'm not as concerned, but we do watch it. I think we have a really good 10 years' worth of lookout in the renewables and what we see. And certainly, some of that is based on the RA and the way it impacts it. But the administration, yes, it will be noisy, but I think in the end, the generation that's needed and what we need will prevail against those kind of short-term dynamics in the market, what you may hear. We are booking backlog. We see work out long out. And we need all forms of generation.

I think it goes back probably 10 years. And when we talked about it, we talked about all forms of energy, all forms of generation. It's never been as pronounced as it is today. We need all forms. And we need it quickly and as fast as we can build it. And I think the demand is there. That's why you're seeing behind the meter things come up, distributed generation, everything that you're seeing because we can't meet it fast enough. When we look at combined cycle, it's just not who we are. We can build it. We probably will build it, but we're not going to build it at risk. And so, yes, we'll help our customers. We can build substations around. We can do all kinds of things around it. But the cost of a combined cycle is not cheap either.

And so I think trying to get gas to it and the cost on turbines and how much it costs to build one these days is not the same. And so I think, in general, we have to make sure that we cover the company off on that risk. It's certainly been something in the past that I can't get out of my head. And we'll be prudent about how we look at that business. I do think it's opportunities and opportunities all the way around it. Single cycles, small stuff, yeah, we can build them. I mean, those aren't difficult. And we'll be involved in some of that, but we won't take the risk on combined cycle.

Steve Fleischmann (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Okay. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question will come from the line of Justin Hauke with Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead.

Justin Hauke (VP and Senior Research Associate)

Great. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I guess a lot of the big picture questions have been asked. I wanted to ask about the impact of the California wildfires. Yeah, I don't really think of that as storm work, the same way that hurricanes knock down lines, but just curious if that's had any impact to you here in the Q1. And maybe more importantly, just the long-term thinking about undergrounding lines and your ability to do that and kind of the cost differential versus overhead lines, just kind of the long-term rebuild impact, if you could comment on that.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

We're involved in some of the undergrounding in California now, and it continues to progress nicely out. It's expensive. It is. So there's no question about it. But between that and taking fire risk, I think it's probably not expensive when you really look at the long-term nature of the business. We do see violent weather across the board whether it's winter weather today or storms, hurricanes, fires. We're seeing it and the impacts of it. So I think as an industry, you're seeing the hardening programs in the west. Certainly, PG&E's got a resilient program ongoing that we're involved in. So we're involved in every one of them with our clients and trying to harden the grid and de-risk their business. I don't think anyone ever intended to take fire risk on a line 35 years ago, 40, 50 years ago.

We have to put for ourselves and try to help and collaborate on what we see across the board to make the grid more resilient, more modern. We're doing that. There's technologies out and things like that that are coming along as well. Everyone's kind of in this new paradigm of these violent events, and we've got to harden the grid. We're seeing that ongoing, and we'll continue to see it for decades or more. We built this grid over the last 60, 70 years. We've got a long way to go. I do see that happening, and we've got to get in front of that. As an industry, there is risk out from fire as well. I mean, we have to watch ourselves and the risks that we have on fire in the West. So I do think how we interact and how we make sure that the company de-risk ourselves in the middle of the fire is something that we watch as well. So look, we're all in it together with the clients and working hard to try to make a difference and make sure that we spare human life when these events happen.

Justin Hauke (VP and Senior Research Associate)

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Your next question will come from the line of Brian Brophy with Stifel Nicolaus. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Star Six will allow you to unmute, Brian.

Brian Brophy (Associate VP)

Thanks. Good morning, everybody. I was hoping you could talk about the communications outlook here a bit in any more detail on this Lumen announcement that you made here. How meaningful could that be, and when should we start thinking about contributions on that front? Thanks.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah, I was just trying to make sure you guys knew we were still in the telecom business, but in general, look, we had a nice award there. We continue to grow the business. We continue to incrementally move it forward. The data center demand on fiber is big. It probably goes unnoticed a bit on everything else, but I do think we continue to see long-haul fiber opportunities as well as just our core business and communications. We love the business. We're growing it, like I said, nicely, and sometimes it goes unnoticed, but I thought the word was meaningful and something that the investment community should see that we're still much larger, and I said it before, our addressable markets continue to grow, and where the company was five years ago versus where it's at today is much different from an addressable market standpoint.

So when you look at the growth going forward, you can see it across multiple segments, whether it's communication technology or utilities. We can go on and on. But I just think that is something that goes unnoticed. And I want to make sure that everyone realizes that our addressable markets across this company have grown and getting larger.

Brian Brophy (Associate VP)

Appreciate it. I'll pass it on.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Please.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, we are asking that all participants limit to one question. If you have additional questions, you may re-queue, and those questions will be addressed time permitting. Our next question will come from Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis.

Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)

Hey, good morning, guys. I had the same question, actually. I was curious about Lumen, what else you're seeing in terms of long-haul fiber. Could you book another award of a similar magnitude? And then Jayshree, curious if you can comment on the tax rate. It was a decent step up year over year. Just wanted to see what was going on there. Thank you.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah, we kind of talked about telecom being $1 billion. We're growing off a $1 billion, and we base there. And I do think we'll see growth in long-haul. We bought some smaller businesses three or four years ago. They're really growing nicely. Our markets are growing. There's no shortage of demand on infrastructure around the telecom data space. So I do see us getting more awards, and we can deliver on national footprint. We talk about the utilizations of some of our underground business moving over into telecom.

That can still happen. So we're leveraging all assets and leveraging people across these TAMs. And so I do think our ability to move resources across these customer bases is something that you'll continue to see the company move forward. And we're in multiple conversations across what I would consider all businesses, and there's growth to every one of them. Infrastructure for the next two decades that I see out is significant, and we're right in the middle of it with our craft skilled labor and engineering capabilities.

Jayshree Desai (CFO)

Yeah, and as for the tax rate, I think a couple of things. One, we did some nice tax planning here that came through at the end of the year that allowed us to clean up some legal entities and take the tax benefit this year. As well as going into 2025, this year we had the big benefit as well earlier in the year of the RSU vesting. We're assuming a lower vest rate and vesting of the stock price in 2025. So you see that as well. The combination of both those things are why you're seeing a step up in the tax rate.

Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)

Thanks, guys.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from the line of Drew Chamberlain with JPMorgan. Please unmute and ask your question.

Drew Chamberlain (Equity Research Associate)

Yeah, good morning, and thanks for taking the question. Just a bit of a follow-up on the renewables bookings. Obviously, good to see the strong momentum there. But can you just kind of break that out a little bit on what you're seeing from a technology standpoint and where demand is, kind of project profiles that are coming in from your customers? And then also what you're hearing on the safe harbor impact that you touched upon briefly earlier and how much that could either have already gone into the backlog or that's already being at play and what the outlook could be for further safe harbor-type wins in 2025?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. I think when we're looking at the renewable business, I mean, certainly, there's noise that continues. But our ability to book work there and what we see and how we can deliver across that market, we're not seeing any pullback. And so we're actually seeing more demand. And the safe harbor is really meant to our customers are buying equipment. They're doing the things that are necessary to make sure that our projects are protected for the long term. And the smart, the bigger ones, our customer base that we work for typically do that, and we're comfortable. You're not seeing the meaningful impact of, call it, beyond 12 backlog because of safe harboring at this point. We just see the market and the strength to it long term.

And as far as the data center demand, if you were going to build generation tomorrow, I would just ask, what would you build and how quickly could you build it? And you would find yourself building a solar plant, probably. It's the fastest thing you can build. And I just think the way you go to market right now, no one wants to hear 48 months. They want to hear 48 minutes. And so I think that will be key on how we look at the business. It won't be as much about what form of generation will be how quick can you get it.

Drew Chamberlain (Equity Research Associate)

Great. Thanks, Duke.

Operator (participant)

Our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Sangita Jain with Keystone. Please unmute and ask your question.

Sangita Jain (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, thanks for taking my question. So if I can ask on the civil acquisition that you made, is that mostly Texas-oriented now? I'm trying to see if you can leverage that to your Cupertino low-voltage work for data centers, maybe.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. I mean, I think, Sangita, yes, it's Southeast-based, not just Texas, but Southeast. We can move it out. They have a lot of capabilities, engineering capabilities, and definitely to expand the business. So yes, I mean, certainly, we can expand. When we look at it, Cupertino works all across the lower 48. So they're in Texas as well in the Southeast, and there's a lot of Southeast expansions and Texas expansions. I just think our synergies would allow us to really grow the business. We could probably absorb the whole business internally with synergies internally. So that's not going to be the case. They get involved in industrial-based LNG, all kinds of different things. And so we're super excited about having the capabilities.

I think when we look at acquisitions, we weren't looking for a civil business, but we know the business well, and it's really the culture, the DNA, what we look for in management teams and how we go about our ability to put strategies forth and solutions to our clients. And also, the quality of the management teams are so paramount when we look at acquisitions that this is a long-standing business, 50-plus years old generationally, that we're super excited that those solutions will be something that both internally and externally you can see. And sometimes you can't see it, but we certainly see it, and we would like our opportunities there.

Sangita Jain (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Your next question will come from the line of Marc Bianchi with Cowen. Please unmute and ask your question.

Marc Bianchi (Managing Director)

Hi, thanks. I wanted to ask on the outlook for underground here in 2025. So 2024 was a bit of a lower margin year for that business, and you're showing sort of an expectation for improvement in 2025. And particularly, the year-over-year improvement as we get past the Q1 looks like it's a pretty good step up. So I was hoping you could kind of unpack kind of what happened in 2024 and what's driving the confidence in the bounce back in 2025.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah, a couple of things. Your industrial business was down a bit, and the margins were down. We had some storms come through the Gulf Coast and impact us in the back half. So part of it is our industrial business gets better. Canada, we're coming off big pipe in Canada. And so that's some of the impacts that are going back into your LDC business that we have growth in. And then when you look at the acquisitions, it's accretive. So the acquisitions are accretive. We have a better industrial margin profile going forward, as well as our LDC business and our core business. In the utility space, people are starting to put more capital back into the gas business. So we're seeing that come back into the core. So all those things kind of come together, and that's why you're seeing the impacts of margins going forward.

But I would still say that we're leveraging the underground capabilities of gas across into telecom and into electric space on any given day. So you can see some pullback, and then electric may go up $200 million of gas assets and people that move over there 300 or 400. So you can see that on any given day in the business. If it was up to me, I'd have one segment, but it's not. So we have two, and it does cross. But I do like our business in totality, and I think it's something that we'll continue to see margin improvement. We're still not happy with where it's at, and I do believe you can get an upper single digits there or maybe even double digits.

Marc Bianchi (Managing Director)

Great. Thanks so much, Duke. I'll turn it back.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from the line of Gus Richard with Northland Capital Markets. Please unmute and ask your question.

Gus Richard (Managing Director)

Yes, thanks for taking the question. On the federal level, there's a lot of changes. You've got indiscriminate layoffs by the Government Efficiency Bureau, and that could slow approval processes. You've got the potential of deregulation to speed things up. You've got the potential of bans of solar panels being imported, another impact. And I'm just wondering if you're seeing anything at this point due to these potential changes and sort of what's your expectation on how easy it'll get projects to get done will get pulled in or pushed out?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

I had a good question. Really try to put my head down and not listen too much to it because it changes by the minute. Fundamentally, from the customers and how we see it and what we've got it to, we've taken into account. We've been very prudent about how we've got it to the midpoint. And anything that we've seen or think that could be a possibility, we've baked into our guidance at this point. So I feel comfortable that across our addressable markets, we have room to expand on any given day. But you're right. I mean, one day, some things are really, really good for certain parts of the business, and some things could impact a bit. But in totality, we see growth. We see opportunity. And everything I hear is just opportunity.

I don't think when you look at it, there's still a lot. If you go back to first term, a lot of this happened then, and we did nicely, and we continue to grow the business. I think the same thing will happen. It'll never be as good as you think, and it'll never be as bad as you think, so we'll be right down the middle with it, and the great thing is, under any scenario, demand is going to outpace supply at this point, and we have to really try to figure out how to get in front of that would be more important.

Gus Richard (Managing Director)

Great. Thanks for the answer.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Osha with Guggenheim Partners. Please go ahead.

Joseph Osha (Senior Managing Director of Equity Research)

Thanks. Good morning. Can you hear me okay?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yes.

Joseph Osha (Senior Managing Director of Equity Research)

Okay. Great.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

You got you.

Joseph Osha (Senior Managing Director of Equity Research)

Duke, you alluded to this a little earlier. Obviously, lead times are way out there for combined cycle machines, but I was at POWERGEN last week, and we're starting to hear sort of the same thing happening on the single cycle side as people look to put peaking power alongside renewables. So I'm just wondering, how are you seeing your mix evolve, and are you starting to see that same kind of frenzy and longer lead times on the single cycle side as well? Thank you.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. I mean, the single cycle business for us, we're certainly capable, and I'm not concerned near as much building the single cycle. So yes, we'll be around the edges on that. We do see a lot of opportunity there, whether it be you have a lot of diesel generation backup today. I think the single cycles will be forms of energy. You can back up and use them in merchant-type situations and things of that nature. And it is way quicker to market with single cycle. So I do think that'll be a part of the solution to get the project started quicker. So we see the opportunity as well, and the company's well-positioned to take advantage of those type of arrangements.

Joseph Osha (Senior Managing Director of Equity Research)

Thank you.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Absolutely.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from the line of Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson. All right. We'll go to Phil Shen with Roth Capital, and we can return to you, Brent.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Phil? Can you hear me okay?

Operator (participant)

We can. Please go ahead.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yes.

Phil Shen (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to go back to the AI data center theme. What opportunities are you conceptualizing now that could deepen your exposure to the AI data center trend beyond Cupertino? You emphasized that you're a solutions provider. What kinds of problems are your data center-related customers experiencing that you could support in a deeper way than you do now?

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Yeah. I mean, we're taking the same approach with the data center owners that we are with the utilities and that intersection as well. So our ability to talk to our clients on the utility side, help them and help the data centers and stay in the middle. We want to build infrastructure, all types of infrastructure. It involves craft skill. If it involves engineering, if it involves anything, really, to be honest, we're certainly in the middle of those discussions and how do we help collaborate to move things faster, more efficiently across both customers as well as our renewables as well. So look, it's a convergence. We see it, and we're in the middle of it, and we will be trying to take advantage of those markets on a go-forward basis that we see. And we've said all along that we feel comfortable with craft skill. We feel comfortable building up our capacity on the front end side of the business and using those service lines to provide a solution. So there's not much we're not talking about with these clients.

Phil Shen (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks, Steve.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

There are no more questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Duke Austin (President and CEO)

Thank you. I want to thank the 60,000-plus employees. They're the best in the business. They allow us to have this call today, and they're building what I consider the infrastructure of the future. I want to thank them, and I want to thank you for participating in our conference call. We appreciate your questions, your ongoing interest, and Quanta services. Thank you. This concludes our call.