Go big to bring the profits home.
That’s the approach Tutor Perini has adopted to multibillion-dollar megaprojects. Though some firms have opted to pursue smaller work packages to avoid schedule and material escalation risk, Tutor Perini has embraced complex, multiyear jobs wholeheartedly.
That practice helped the Los Angeles-based contractor amass record revenue and higher profits in the second quarter, according to Tutor Perini executives on an earnings call Wednesday.
“Our strong backlog, which includes nine mega projects we have won over the past few years with a combined value of about $16 billion, continues to provide us with excellent line of sight for future revenue and earnings over the next several years,” Gary Smalley, president and CEO, said on the call.
Examples include the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel project and $3.8 billion Manhattan jail build, both in New York. It’s also working on California’s high-speed rail initiative, where the firm and its subsidiaries have lined up nearly $4.3 billion in contracts.
Though Tutor Perini’s megaproject-friendly approach has led to sticky legal disputes that it has spent years unwinding, it has now also resulted in the contractor amassing approximately $424 million in cash on its balance sheet available for general corporate use, CFO Ryan Soroka said on the call.
That war chest is currently helping the contractor differentiate itself in a segment of the construction business where only a relatively few players have the heft — and capital — to operate.
It also means instead of splitting profits with a joint venture partner — which are often required by surety companies on large jobs to spread contracting risk — Tutor Perini can go it alone and keep a larger piece of the pie for itself.
“The large cash helps us be able to do that to get the surety approval to pursue the projects with just ourselves,” Smalley said. “What that means is when you've got a couple $100 million or so of profit on these new projects that you're landing, you don't have to share 20% or 25% with a joint venture partner because the sureties have confidence that you can execute the project.”
By the numbers
Tutor Perini’s revenue for the second quarter came in at a record $1.64 billion, up 19% from $1.37 billion a year earlier. Smalley attributed that growth primarily due to increased project execution on large, high-margin projects in New York, California, Hawaii and the Indo-Pacific region.
The firm posted a backlog of $19.86 billion, up slightly from the first quarter but down about 6%, from $21.08 billion, during the same period in 2025.
Smalley said the largest contributions to its current backlog during the quarter included:
- $652 million to modernize and protect critical power infrastructure at Naval Base Guam.
- $143 million for two U.S. Coast Guard projects in Alaska.
- $130 million of additional funding for a new pediatric campus electric project in Texas.
- $114 million for the Jones Hall project at the University of Mississippi.
- $106 million for a bridge project in Minnesota.
This approach led to higher profits in the second quarter of $65.7 million, more than a threefold increase over the $20 million in net income the firm reported for the same period in 2025.
Keeping those profits up is the company’s goal going forward, as it bids on what it said was $200 billion in opportunity it sees in the marketplace. To that end, it will be selective on what it pursues.
“We're not going to try to book projects just because we want projects in the backlog,” Smalley said. “We want profitable projects, very high margins of backlog.”
