Engineering firm profit climbs 48%

Construction services provider Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said its fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 48% as surging oil and gas prices spurred contracts to build energy projects.

For the quarter that ended March 31, the Pasadena-based company earned $99.3 million, or 80 cents a share, up from $67.2 million, or 55 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $2.66 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 77 cents a share on sales of $2.63 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

Jacobs said its markets were strong and its outlook “remains positive.” Its backlog totaled $16.2 billion on March 31, compared with $10.7 billion a year earlier.