Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Second Quarter 2025 Parsons Corporation Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation there will be a question- and- answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star one, one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising, your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one, one a gain. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Dave Spille, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Liz. Good morning and thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2025 financial results. Please note that we provide presentation slides on the Investor Relations section of our website. On the call with me today are Carey Smith, Chair, President and CEO, and Matt Ofilos, CFO. Today, Carey will discuss our corporate strategy and operational highlights, and then Matt will provide an overview of our second- quarter financial results, as well as a review of our 2025 guidance. We then will close with a question- and- answer session. Management may also make forward-looking statements during the call regarding future events, anticipated future trends, and the anticipated future performance of the company. We caution you that such statements are not guarantees of future performance,, and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. These risk factors are described in our Form 10-K, for fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 and other SEC filings. Please refer to our earnings press release for Parsons' complete forward-looking statement disclosure. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. Management will also make reference to non-GAAP financial measures during this call. We remind you that these non-GAAP financial measures are not a substitute for the comparable GAAP measures. I now will turn the call over to Carey.
Thank you, Dave. Good morning. Welcome to Parsons' Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. We're pleased with our second quarter results as cash flow exceeded our forecast, and our revenue and adjusted EBITDA were in line with our expectations and the guidance assumptions we outlined on June 2nd, 2025. Excluding the revenue impact from our confidential contract for both Q2 2025 and Q2 2024, our second- quarter total and organic revenue growth rates were 13% and 8%, respectively. This growth includes double-digit total revenue growth in three of our four business units, with the fourth business unit growing 9% year- over- year. It also includes 8% organic growth for Parsons in both segments, highlighting the strength of our balanced portfolio, our strong hiring and retention, and our alignment to priority spending areas.
During the second quarter, we delivered 40 basis points of margin expansion to 9.4%, a second quarter record, $160 million of cash flow from operations, and achieved a free cash flow conversion rate of 151% for the quarter and 125% on a trailing 12-month basis. We also reported a book-to-bill ratio of 1.0x for the quarter and trailing 12 months. This continues our streak of having a quarterly trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio of 1.0 or better since our 2019 IPO. Finally, we're increasing our full- year revenue, adjusted EBITDA and cash flow guidance ranges, to reflect our second quarter operating performance, Chesapeake Technology International acquisition, and our outlook for the remainder of the year. In addition to delivering solid financial results and program execution across our portfolio, we were recognized this quarter by Engineering News-Record as the top program manager firm in the world.
Also, Parsons was ranked number two on the Professional Services list, number two on the Construction Management Program Management for Fee list, and number three for Construction Management. This global recognition is a testament to our reputation for complex program delivery. Further, we won three contracts over $100 million in the second quarter, with two of the three contracts representing new work. Significant second- quarter contract wins included a new $176 million single award contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to provide design- build delivery services for an ammonium nitrate solution tank farm at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant, a new single award contract for cyber work by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency with a ceiling value of $138 million. Under this contract, Parsons will perform cyber assessments, operations analysis, and research.
A $134 million full-on contract oversees remediation projects on the Giant Mine program in Canada, which is one of the largest mine reclamation projects in the world. Our critical infrastructure segment continues to thrive as we leverage our reputation, program management, and design engineering expertise to capitalize on unprecedented infrastructure spending in both North America and the Middle East. Overall, second quarter total infrastructure revenue grew 14% and 8% on an organic basis. In North America, total revenue grew 17% and 7% on an organic basis, as we continue to win large new programs, execute on existing contracts, and retain and hire new employees. Several large project wins contributed to second- quarter growth and are expected to grow in the second half of 2025, including Georgia State Route 400, Newark AirTrain, Hawaii City Center Rail and Transit, Hudson River Tunnel, and the I-55 bridge replacement.
Our growth and success in North America are particularly exciting, given infrastructure spending from the IIJA is not expected to peak until 2028 ,with a six to eight- year tail after that. Plus, discussions on the next surface transportation reauthorization bill are already underway, and Secretary Duffy held a kickoff meeting on July 17th to emphasize that America is building again. This bill will provide more infrastructure spending once passed. Our focus on hard infrastructure such as roads and highways, bridges, and airports has bipartisan support and is a priority for the administration. Our Middle East infrastructure business also continues to excel, and we're the number one program manager throughout the region. We've operated in the Middle East for over six decades and have 7,000 employees in the region today.
In 2024, we generated more than $1 billion of revenue, and we expect total revenue growth of over 10% in 2025, which would mark the fourth consecutive year with double- digit organic revenue growth in the Middle East. We continue to see significant demand for our master planning, design, engineering, and program and construction management solutions in the Middle East. We see this trend continuing as governments deliver their strategic vision, as well as prepare for upcoming events such as the Asian Winter Games, World Expo, and World Cup. We've expanded into the defense, hospitality, and industrial manufacturing sectors with recent wins, as these sectors are receiving major investments. We were excited to participate in President Trump's second quarter Middle East trip, which included visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, each of which represents significant existing work and future growth opportunities for Parsons.
These visits underscore Parsons' pivotal role as a premier leader in the region, and our alignment with the administration's priorities. Parsons' portfolio was acknowledged during events, including a signing ceremony for our two awards for the new King Salman International Airport. Our Middle East revenue growth is expected to accelerate in the second half of this year, as we continue our strong hiring and retention, and ramp up contracts, including King Salman Park, the Riyadh Ring Roads Program, the Dubai Metro Blue Line project, and the King Salman International Airport. W ith significant wins in critical infrastructure, Middle East, and North America, we've achieved a book-to-bill ratio of 1.4x and 1.2x respectively in the first half of 2025.
In our Federal Solutions segment, we're excited about the growth we're delivering in our core business, the significant large opportunities in our pipeline, and the funding boost to the fiscal year 2026 defense investment accounts due to the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill, the reconciliation bill. Excluding the revenue impact from our confidential contract, our second quarter federal solutions year-over-year total and organic revenue growth rates were 11% and 8% respectively. This growth was primarily driven by demand for our aviation, cyber, and electronic warfare solutions. We are benefiting from our exposure to large single- award IDIQ contracts, including our two sizable General Services Administration FEDSIM programs, the Missile Defense Agency teams, and our Air Base Air Defense contract. Having existing single- award IDIQ contracts with high ceiling values is important to rapidly deploy solutions that address near-peer threats.
In addition, we're experiencing growth on our FAA, Army Ammunition, and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Red Team programs. These contracts are expected to continue to grow in the second half of 2025. We're excited about the passage of the reconciliation bill on July 4th, that increases defense spending by $150 billion and adds an anticipated 25% to investment accounts for fiscal 2026. Our federal portfolio aligns with major budget line items, including aviation modernization, missile defense, space munitions facility modernization, Pacific deterrence, border security, and more. Parsons' portfolio also aligns to 10 of the 17 priority areas outlined in the February 2025 Department of Defense Memorandum, which are expected to receive additional funding over the next five years. We are laser- focused on the budget line items that align with our core competencies, and where our portfolio is well- positioned with domain knowledge and Leap Ahead solutions.
As a non-traditional company that was purpose built with differentiated capabilities, we have the speed and agility to deliver transformational programs that achieve the administration's requirements and accelerated timelines. The FAA received $12.5 billion under the reconciliation bill, to produce a new state-of-the-art air traffic control system. We are well- positioned for the integrator contract, given our transformational approach, partnership with IBM and a team that is vendor agnostic, knows how to deliver advanced solutions, understands the FAA and has strong past performance. If we win the integrator contract, Parsons will gain additional FAA work and serve as a single point of accountability prime contractor to ensure mission success. The Golden Dome for America initiative, an integrated air and missile defense shield for our country's Homeland defense, received $25 billion of funding under the reconciliation bill. Parsons has strong qualifications to address challenges that Golden Dome is trying to solve.
We've supported the Missile Defense Agency for more than 40 years, and we're currently providing system engineering and integration on MDA's teams n ext System Engineering Contract. U nder this contract, we deliver capabilities that are directly aligned to Golden Dome, such as engineering analysis and modeling, and simulation on a vendor- agnostic basis. These solutions enable the development of an integrated and layered missile defense system, to protect the United States and allied forces against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missile, and unmanned aircraft system threats. Golden Dome encompasses defending against advanced missile and drone threats with kinetic weapons, such as missiles and non-kinetic capabilities such as cyber and electronic warfare. Having non-kinetic solutions embedded within the Golden Dome system is a game- changer, since it will enable our country to defeat adversary weapons systems either before or after a threat is launched.
These capabilities can be used numerous times and against many types of threats, while preserving valuable and costly kinetic resources. Our portfolio aligns with other major budget reconciliation line items, including munitions, Pacific Deterrence, border security, and more. The munitions production budget received $25 billion of funding under the reconciliation bill. We're involved in modernizing several of the largest Army Ammunition plants including Holston and Radford. Like our most recent $176 million award for the new ammonium nitrate solution tank farm at Holston, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative received $12 billion of new funding. We've been operating in the INDOPACOM region for three decades, and have significant infrastructure work on Guam and Kwajalein Islands, along with important mission-critical cyber and electronic warfare programs in the region.
This quarter, we further expanded our presence by winning a Counter- Nuclear Smuggling Detection, Deterrence Task Order from the Department of Energy for the INDOPACOM region. Finally, border security and enforcement received over $160 billion in the reconciliation bill. For decades, Parsons has worked on border security projects worldwide to improve our customers' ability to predict illicit activity, detect and track illegal border crossings, identify and classify the incursions, and prevent weapons of mass destruction. We supported the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Customs and Border Protection, Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, and Department of Energy, providing engineering, program management, infrastructure upgrades, integrated command and control, remote sensing surveillance systems, situational awareness, and common operating picture systems.
Our work is performed across the United States at the Southwest border, land ports of entry and Customs and Border Protection training facilities and globally, in countries including, Armenia, Georgia, Lebanon, Jordan, and more. We are very excited about the large opportunities in our pipeline that have substantial federal funding, with excellent win rates over the last three years and strategic investments, and bid and proposal activity and key personnel. We've positioned the company to win these large pursuits that could accelerate our future organic revenue growth for years to come. As a result of Parsons' strategic business positioning and purpose-built portfolio, these major projects are well aligned to our core competencies and we are ready to deliver the additional demand. I want to highlight our acquisition of Chesapeake Technology International.
CTI is a developer of multi-domain technologies across the invisible battle space in areas of electronic warfare, cyber, and autonomous systems. They enhance our position in the INDOPACOM region and strengthen our relationships with special operations forces, and key research and development customers, including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. CTI's Team Awareness Kit and Tactical Assault Kit or TACX situational awareness tool has been applied for border security, disaster relief, counter unmanned air systems, and other applications. This acquisition meets our financial M&A criteria. CTI is a high-quality and unique company, and we're excited to welcome them to the Parsons team. In summary, I'm pleased with our second quarter results, as our core business continues to deliver strong total and organic revenue growth. We expanded margins by 40 basis points, delivered exceptional cash flow and further positioned the company for continued long-term sustainable growth.
In addition, we leveraged our balance sheet and closed another strategic accretive acquisition. We've now closed one acquisition in each of the last four quarters. Our diversified portfolio and six growing and profitable end markets are enabling us to achieve mid to high single-digit organic growth across the entire company, excluding the confidential contract. We have tailwinds in both segments and financial metrics that support long-term growth and margin expansion. Unprecedented global infrastructure spending is expected to last into the next decade. The reconciliation bill was passed, and Parsons' capabilities will continue to play a vital role, as near-peer threats become more aggressive and advanced cyber attacks increase across the U.S. and global conflicts persist.
From a financial perspective, we have a total backlog of nearly $9 billion, of which 70% is funded, approximately $11 billion of contract wins that we have not yet booked, a $55 billion pipeline that includes 114 opportunities of contracts worth $100 million or more, and 14 opportunities worth $500 million or more. W e have less than 3% of our revenue up for recompete in the second half of 2025.
Our robust backlog, large-scale pursuits, and excellent win rates provide a backdrop for Parsons to continue to outpace industry growth rates and deliver significant shareholder value over the long term. I look forward to our bright future, and I am proud of our more than 20,000 employees that are making a difference for our customers and communities around the world every day. It's a very exciting time to be at Parsons. With that, I'll turn it over to Matt to provide more details on our second quarter financial results. Matt.
Thank you, Carey. Q2 financials were highlighted by strong free cash flow, adjusted EBITDA margins, and total and organic revenue growth, excluding our confidential contract. In addition, we continue to leverage our balance sheet, and completed another accretive acquisition in the strategic national security space that strengthens capabilities and customer relationships. Turning to the details of our second quarter results. T otal revenue of $1.6 billion decreased 5% from the prior year period, and was down 9% on an organic basis. Excluding our confidential contract, total revenue grew 13% and 8% on an organic basis, driven by growth in our transportation and cyber markets. SG&A expenses for the second quarter increased 13% from the prior year period.
This increase was primarily driven by the inclusion of recent acquisitions, and increased investments in bid and proposal activity and critical hires in support of our strong pipeline and large strategic pursuits aligned to the administration's priorities. Adjusted EBITDA of $149 million was comparable with the second quarter of 2024. However, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 40 basis points to 9.4%, our second quarter record. Our margin increase was driven by improved program performance and accretive acquisitions. I'll turn now to our operating segments, starting first with federal solutions, where second- quarter total revenue decreased 19% from the prior year period and 20% on an organic basis. Excluding our confidential contract, Q2 federal solutions total revenue increased 8% and 8% on an organic basis. These increases were driven by growth on existing contracts and the ramp- up of new task order wins, specifically in the cyber and intelligence and aviation markets.
Our confidential contract generated $106 million of revenue in Q2 2025, in line with our expectations. At the beginning of the third quarter, this contract was terminated for convenience a s anticipated. Federal solutions adjusted EBITDA decreased 35% from the second quarter of 2024, and adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 210 basis points to 8.3%, driven primarily by contract mix and investments made in bid and proposal activity and key personnel on strategic pursuits. Moving now to our Critical infrastructure segment, second-quarter revenue increased by $97 million or 14%, from the second quarter of 2024. This increase was driven by organic growth of 8%, and inorganic revenue contributions from our BCC and TRS acquisitions. Organic growth was driven primarily by the ramp up of recent contract wins, and growth on existing contracts in both North America and the Middle East.
We're expecting growth to accelerate in the second half of the year, as new and existing contracts ramp and strong hiring activity in the second quarter flows through to revenue. C ritical infrastructure a djusted EBITDA increased 73% from the second quarter of 2024, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 350 basis points to 10.5%, a second- quarter record for the segment. These increases were driven primarily by improved program performance, the ramp- up on recent awards and acquisitions to include BCC, where we are seeing significant synergy benefits both to revenue and margins. Next, I'll discuss cash flow and balance sheet metrics. Our net DSO at the end of Q2 2025 was 60 days, consistent with prior year period. During the second quarter of 2025, we generated $160 million of operating cash flow, which is also consistent with Q2 2024.
On a trailing 12- month basis, we generated $574 million of operating cash flow, which is a Q2 record and a 17% increase over the prior 12- month period. These increases were driven by strong collections in both segments and lower tax payments. Capital expenditures totaled $9 million in the second quarter of 2025, consistent with the prior year period. We expect CapEx to increase in the second half of the year in support of long- term growth, partially offset by reductions in facility square footage in several locations. For fiscal year 2025, CapEx is expected to remain in line with our planned spend of approximately 1% of annual revenue. At the end of Q2, free cash flow conversion was 125% on a trailing 12- month basis, with an intentional focus on contract execution, settlement of legacy claims and improved cash management and collections.
Our balance sheet remains strong. I ncluding the impact of our all- cash acquisition of CTI, w e ended the second quarter with a net debt leverage ratio of 1.5x . During the second quarter, we repurchased approximately 219,000 shares at an average price of $68.56, for an aggregate purchase price of $15 million. On a year- to- date basis, we've repurchased approximately 643,000 shares at an average price of $62.22, for an aggregate purchase price of $40 million. Turning now to bookings. F or the second quarter, we reported contract awards of $1.5 billion, representing a book-to-bill ratio of 1.0x on an enterprise basis, which continued our streak with a trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio of 1.0 or greater in every quarter since our IPO. In Critical infrastructure, we achieved a book-to-bill ratio of 1.1 x, which is the 19th consecutive quarter with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.0 or greater.
Federal Solutions reported a book-to-bill ratio of 0.8x . The backlog at the end of the second quarter totaled $8.9 billion, a 1% increase over Q2 2024. Additionally, our funded backlog is the highest since our IPO, at $6.2 billion, a 14% increase year- over- year. Next, I'll discuss updated guidance. We are increasing our revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and cash flow guidance ranges provided on June 2nd to reflect our second quarter results, CTI acquisition, changes to tax laws, and our outlook for the remainder of the year. We expect total revenue to be between $6.48 and $6.68 billion. This guidance represents total revenue growth of 17%, 13% on an organic basis, excluding the confidential contract. Including this contract, total revenue is anticipated to decline 3% at the midpoint of the range and 6% on an organic basis.
We expect growth to accelerate in the second half of the year as we ramp on recent contract wins, existing contracts expand, strong hiring and retention continues, and we realize the contributions from CTI. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be between $595 and $635 million, with a margin of 9.3% at the midpoint of revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges. This represents adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of 30 basis points from 2024, and an 80 basis point increase since 2023. Operating cash flow is now expected to be between $400 and $440 million, given strong Q2 performance and the cash tax benefit related to the reconciliation bill. Other key assumptions in connection with our 2025 guidance, including quarterly cadences are outlined on Slide 11 in today's PowerPoint presentation, located on the Investor Relations website. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Carey.
Thank you, Matt. During the second quarter, we delivered significant growth in our core business, 40 basis points of margin expansion, exceptional cash flow and free cash flow conversion, and completed a strategic acquisition while maintaining our strong balance sheet, which will enable us to make future accretive acquisitions. We're optimistic about our future, given our team's proven execution, the tailwinds we have in both segments, our large total and funded backlog, and the robust pipeline of large opportunities we have to pursue. With that, we'll now open the line for questions.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one, one on your touchtone phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one, one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Tobey Sommer with Truist.
Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the opportunities in front of the company, sort of over the near to medium term with respect to Golden Dome and the very large FAA procurement. Could you just discuss how you're pursuing those? I know that we've heard that the FAA procurement is sort of fluid. They're soliciting a lot of advice and it's not yet determined how that path will proceed. Is there an optimal way that that could proceed from your perspective?
Yeah. Thanks, Tobey. Appreciate the question. Thanks for joining the call today. We're very excited about the FAA program. We've fortunately supported the FAA for nearly five decades. We have excellent past performance. We've done a lot of the infrastructure and facilities work. We've put together a very strong team to pursue the FAA integration contract. What's going to be important in that contract is making sure that you have a company that knows how to deliver. Parsons is the number one program manager in the world per Engineering News-Record. We've partnered with IBM, a very strong technical partnership, and we feel that we're very well ready to take on the single point of accountability integration role and provide the FAA a safe, resilient, reliant system that also transforms for the future. That's $12.5 billion of funding in the reconciliation bill. We're anticipating a request for solicitation sometime soon.
They had hoped to make an award by the end of September, but that's really now dependent on the timing of the request for solicitation. Under Golden Dome, that's $25 billion of reconciliation funding. B y the way, the FAA and Golden Dome are both projected to receive more in the future. On FAA, they indicated they need about $31.5 billion. For the Golden Dome, they've indicated they need about $175 billion for the total contract. Very similar to FAA, w e're extremely well- positioned for the Golden Dome. We've been supporting the Missile Defense Agency for four decades, providing system engineering and integration capabilities, along with modeling, simulation, and analysis capabilities. We have a current contract vehicle, it's worth $2.2 billion. On that vehicle, w e still have $1 billion remaining. That can be used to get Golden Dome kickstarted right away.
In addition to that, we also have non-kinetic capabilities, as I mentioned during the script, that we think are very novel and unique to counter threats in a non-kinetic way. I'd also highlight again under the bill, because I'm really excited about the reconciliation bill and how well it aligned our portfolio, the munitions budget of $21 billion. It will continue to expand beyond our current capacity that we have at Holston and Radford, and then the border security funding of $160 billion. That's really going to leverage our decades of experience all over the globe in providing border security solutions.
Yeah, Tobey, the only thing I would add, and Carey commented on it, but on the existing IDIQ vehicles between those two areas with MVA and FAA, we have almost $3 billion worth of ceiling remaining. Just great opportunity to move on existing vehicles or new. It's really great opportunities on both for us.
Thanks. If I could ask a follow- up, what's your expectation for the calendar 3Q, which is seasonally the industry's strongest from a book-to-bill perspective? T his year, we've seen obligation action lagging pretty significantly. Do you expect a bigger than normal seasonal catch- up for the industry and yourselves?
I would say we're definitely expecting a more robust Q3 and that traditionally as you point out Tobey, is for the federal business, the strongest quarter. W ithin critical infrastructure, o bviously we've had 19 consecutive quarters greater than 1.0 book-to-bill. Orders can be lumpy. I always like myself to look at the revenue growth. I think where we've done a tremendous job in our federal business is driving task orders onto that $11 billion of unused ceiling that has been awarded to Parsons, that we haven't yet put into bookings. I was glad this quarter on the federal business, that we did see two new large awards move forward, the Holston, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Cyber. We are anticipating a 1.0 book-to-bill for the full year for both CI and for federal, and expect Q3 will be a stronger quarter.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Our next question comes from Andrew Wittmann with Baird.
Great, good morning. T hank you for taking my questions. I guess Carey, I thought I would j ust check in here and get your comments on how the One Big Beautiful Bill, which obviously you've articulated the aspects on the federal side. Can you talk about how it might impact your infrastructure side, particularly as it relates to the state and local budgets that are out there, and how they might be affected? If you're hearing anything from your customers on that side of the House, of how the bill might impact them.
Yes. I think, Andrew the biggest thing I'd say is we're aligned with the administration's and bipartisan priorities. There's going to be a shift from soft infrastructure areas like climate change, renewables, electrification over to hard infrastructure, which is road and highways, bridges, airports. T hose are the areas where Parsons' portfolio is very well aligned. We're also super excited about the next five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill kicking off, and we expect additional funding to come through that bill. When you're looking at the current IIJA not peaking until 2028, six to eight-year tail overlaying a new surface transportation bill, and then a shift in funding from soft to hard targets infrastructure, that really benefits Parsons.
Got it, o kay. Just my follow up for Matt, an easy one here. Just the guidance increase, at least here on the income statement, it looks like it's mostly the contribution of the incremental acquisition that you did in the quarter. It looks like the income statement for the company for the quarter was mostly in line. Is that the correct way of thinking about the guidance increase, or is there some other nuance there that we should be aware of?
Yeah. No, Andy, CTI is the big contributor. $30 million for the top line and then $5 million in the bottom line. A little bit more aggressive on the bottom line, given the outperform first half. A little bit of that is organic. On the cash flow side, it's mainly organic. The big effect was the R&D tax credit. We got almost $20 million worth of benefit from the reconciliation bill on the R&D tax credit. That flowed through the cash. The top and bottom line were all CTI mainly.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Andy.
Our next question comes from Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies.
Good morning, guys. Thanks so much, and thanks for mentioning Armenia in the script. I don't think I've heard that before, so appreciate that. Maybe if we could just talk about the organic growth outlook a little bit more. Carey, how do you think about the puts and takes? It seems like we're down a point to 6% organic. G iven CPI contribution, h ow do we think about the second half contributors playing into that and the ramp up?
Yeah. Excluding the confidential contract, we're going to grow 18% organic in the second half, and that breaks out, let's see, that would end up being.
13 percentile within CI on an organic basis, and then north of 20% on Fed. Really strong growth on both sides of the company.
Yes. Let me walk through the pieces for that, because I think it's important to note that this is largely based on work that we've already won today. When you look at what's going to accelerate in the second half, critical infrastructure, North America, Georgia State Route 400, Newark AirTrain, Hawaii Rail and Transit, Hudson River Tunnel, I-55, Middle East, King Salman Park, Red Ring Roads, Dubai Metro, King Salman International Airport, Engineered Systems, FAA, Holston Ammonium Nitrate.
Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Red Team, United States Postal Service and Defense and Intelligence, the Missile Defense Agency teams contract, GSA, FedSIM, additional ceiling tech product sales, Air Base, Air Defense. I think what's important is, we do have our July results. They were very favorable and they're on track to achieve the back half acceleration. We also had in July, record hiring within the Middle East, so q uite excited. I think we've got industry leading organic growth in both segments.
What changed to cut the core b y one point since your last update? My second question, if I can squeeze that in, just on CI, the performance has been quite stellar, 10.4% margins year to date. Just any update on the programs that previously faced supply chain challenges.
Yeah, Sheila. I can start off with the 5%- 6%. Actually, it's really just rounding. It was 5.4%, went to 5.5%, so t here's really nothing more behind that. The organic revenue stayed constant. It was just, the contribution from CTI changed the base, so j ust no implied delta on the organic. Carey, you want to cover CI?
Critical infrastructure margin, so w hat's been good on critical infrastructure is really program execution. The team's done a very good job this year, of just executing. We've always indicated that the long-term margins for critical infrastructure should be double digit, and that's what we're seeing. I'd say continued program execution. We're seeing demand much greater than supply both in North America and in the Middle East, d ouble- digit growth within those. T hose are the margins long term that we would expect to deliver.
Awesome. Thank you.
Thank you, Sheila.
Our next question comes from Noah Poponak with Goldman Sachs.
Hey. G ood morning, everyone.
Morning, Noah.
Matt, what's the second half f ederal solutions organic ex-c onfidential that's now in the guidance? J ust looking at the slide you have that shows that confidential was still just over $100 million in the second quarter, i f I take that out sequentially, i t l ooks like a bit of a lift to overcome that sequentially, unless seasonality is in your favor or there's an acceleration everywhere else.
Yeah. N o, you're right. Fed organic growth in the second half is expected to be just north of 20%, so a little bit better than first half, which was closer to high single, low- double digit. We're seeing really strong growth on programs. We have some key deliveries. The FAA ramp that Carey talked about, MDA is growing. We have some product deliveries within the ceiling tech acquisition we've done. We see really strong demand across the portfolio on the federal side. To your point, it is going to expand in the second half of the year.
Also, the new business wins we highlighted with Holston and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, I go back to, our July results are right in line with our plan.
Yeah, Carey, I guess you've cited a number of specifics for the basis for that. From a top- down perspective how much risk is there just in the slower contracting environment that we're in, to assume double the growth rate in that business in the back half versus the first half?
The most important thing is, those are largely contracts that have already been awarded and we're ramping up, which we've been accelerating throughout the year. FAA's a real good example of that, which we've seen strong outperformance over last year. I would say a lot of that is one. We also have the $11 billion of awarded, not booked that is predominantly in the federal area and we've done a great job of driving task orders over to that. The environment's been a little slower, but I'd say we're optimistic that it is starting to pick up. I look at the amount and the volume of proposals that we've been submitting, it's right in line with what we would expect. It's great to see some of these big, large, new awards come through this quarter.
Okay. I t sounds like you're saying you're able to say right now that , I mean it's one month, but July at least is tracking to that directional plan.
That's correct. July results were favorable and demonstrate that we're on track to achieve the back half acceleration.
Okay, great. Just the last one from me. The federal solutions margin has come down. H ow much was confidential helping that margin? Was there anything abnormal in the quarter, or where does that go in the back half from here?
Yeah. A s you point out, the biggest driver of course was the lower volume on our confidential contract t hat came down about $250 million year- over- year. Fixed price contracts obviously are accretive, so t he impact from that put a few damper on the margins. In addition to that, I think Carey mentioned in her script, we had some additional spend from a BNP perspective back to the expanding capture environment and some strategic hires that we put in place ahead of expected awards. Those two things are the big driver to the Fed margin for the quarter. For the rest of the year ,we expect Fed margins to be in the low 9% range, to get back up near 9% for total year.
We have some incentive fees timing in the second half. We've got some product sales as I mentioned before, and then operating leverage. As you see the outpaced revenue growth, you'll start to see the margins trend back up as well. Those are the big drivers for second half. I think long term, Tobey, we're happy in the low to mid nines, given the breadth of the portfolio, the amount of cost type work we do, that's more on the front end, R&D focused. All in all, happy with where the investments are going and long term outlook for the Fed margins.
Okay, thanks so much.
Thanks.
Our next question comes from Mariana Pérez Mora with Bank of America.
Hi, good morning. This is Samantha Storey for Mariana.
Hey, Sam. Good morning.
Sticking with the FS margin, you highlighted strategic personnel hires. With that, how has the hiring environment been, and then what is your ability to move people within the company around to these high priority areas?
Yeah, thanks for the question. Hiring environment's been very strong. Also, the retention, our retention is the best that it's been since 2020. We do have a great ability to hire. I think really as a result of our mission, focus and our culture, people want to come to Parsons. Our ability to win, with strong rates of 72% this year, similar to what we've delivered in the last two years, we're winning these great, new exciting projects. We do have an ability to move people around.
We have a common program management pool of people. We have an engineering design group of people. I always like to highlight somebody who today works in internal audit. That's a person that worked in Federal or worked in critical infrastructure, worked in North America, worked in the Middle East. She's been all over the company. I think we do a great job of that, in giving people new experiences and development opportunities.
Great, thank you. I'll keep it at one.
Thanks, Sam.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Gautam Khanna with TD Cowen.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning.
Morning.
Was wondering if you could elaborate on the unbooked backlog, if you will. I think it changed by $1 billion in the quarter. Maybe you touched on it and I missed it, but 12 [crosstalk]. Yeah, thanks.
Yeah, sure. It's just over $11 billion now. We had about $600 million that was in for the confidential contract, so we obviously have removed that. We've done exactly as we indicated, which is driven task orders onto some of our IDIQ vehicles. It came down slightly because of that, and that's again our full intention.
Okay. Maybe, did you guys comment on what your outstanding bids are as of the end of the quarter?
We have $6 billion awaiting notice of award. We have a $55 billion pipeline.
Okay. You mentioned you've booked a lot of the stuff already that gives you confidence in the second half ramp. Is there any change in the funding environment, the funded backlog that you're seeing, that raises any risk to that outlook or does that look all well aligned at this point?
Our funded backlog's the highest it's been at 70%, so very strong.
Yeah, I would say funding's coming in in line, cash is paying clean. I would say all in all, we're looking pretty good, Gautam.
Terrific. Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one, one on your touchtone phone. Our next question comes from Jonathan Siegmann with Stifel.
Hey, good morning. Carey, Matt, Dave, thanks for taking my question.
Morning.
[crosstalk] Maybe just to tease a bit more on the second half ramp in federal solutions, I think maybe what's optically struggling is looking at the backlog that hasn't been sequentially down with your expectations of higher growth. When I look at your remaining performance obligations, being in federal solutions at an all-time high, up double digits, I think that's consistent with your confidence. I just wanted to see if t hat's the right interpretation of it or whether that's being distorted b y Chesapeake at all. Thank you.
Yeah, no real distortion from Chesapeake . I think you're right. Between RUPO and funded backlog, we see really strong next 12 months- 18 months. I'd say that helps us build the confidence we see, timing on the awards, the ramps, the milestone deliveries. There's a lot of things that are all to help us build . Obviously, 20% is a supporting number, but we' re fully committed and we're going to deliver.
Again, our funded backlog is up 14%, so very strong.
Appreciate that. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Louis DePalma with William Blair.
Carey, Matt, and Dave, g ood morning.
Morning, Louis.
Morning, Louis.
Carey, you discussed the strong second half growth for I think seven large U.S. infrastructure programs. For these programs, will the revenue trajectory take the shape of a bell curve, and does that peak funding for these programs, should it resemble general peak funding for IIJA? I think you mentioned that there should be funding that should increase for IIJA through 2028. Is that how we should assume the revenue trajectory for these programs?
Yes. It really varies. Let me just give you two specific examples. Georgia State Route 400, w e're part of a public- private partnership. We are the design engineer. What you'll see is most of our work at the very beginning of that project. Another example would be the Dubai Metro Blue Line. We're the program manager. In that instance, we will provide program management capabilities throughout that entire contract at a steady state. It really depends on the type of work we're performing on each contract. Another example in the U.S., the Hudson River Tunnel, which is the largest rail and transit infrastructure project in the U.S., we are the program manager on that. We'll be on for that entire duration.
Okay. A s a whole for these programs, would there be like difficult comps in 2028 or 2027 for the ones that are front -end loaded, or how should we think about them collectively?
Yeah. N o, because we continue to win new business. You know, 19 consecutive quarters greater than 1.0 book-to-bill, projects still coming out larger than we've seen in both North America and the Middle East. Not even at a peak yet, where the funding has been outlaid out of the IIJA and then adding a new surface transportation bill on top of that. Like I said, we'll continue to win projects. Again, very proud o f where we moved up on the Engineering News-Record ratings to be number one now on program management in the world.
Great, Carey. For the confidential contract, was there any breakup fee or should we assume $0 in revenue in the third quarter, or how should we think about that?
Yeah, for that contract, we did $181 million in Q1, $106 million in Q2, so $286 million, c onsistent with our guidance that we updated on June 2nd. We are in the process of negotiating a demobilization contract line item for the wind- down of the project. It's not yet negotiated, but we expect it to be very scaled back and immaterial, less than 1% of revenue.
Okay, thanks. Matt, could you provide the quarterlies for the confidential contract for the third quarter and fourth quarter of last year?
Yeah . You'll remember we had some complexities with the customer to give out a total scale of the contract. I'll kind of give you directional, Q2 and Q3 were the peak. Q4 was lighter. I would say this Q2 number was a little bit bigger in Q3 and then Q4 was lower.
Great. One final one. Earlier this week, Carey and Matt, you announced a satellite communications partnership with Globalstar, to bring services to Europe. What does that partnership entail? The reason I'm asking is, as everybody on the call is aware, there have been significant GPS jamming attacks across Europe with the conflict. Does your Globalstar partnership provide any types of alternative position, navigation, and timing services to help alleviate those jamming attacks? Thanks.
Yeah, great question, Louis. That's exactly what it does. We've partnered with Globalstar. W e've got a very innovative solution, and it takes our Parsons proprietary software-defined satellite communications technology, integrates it with Globalstar's Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation. W e developed it specifically to target complex and congested areas, as you're referring to, in Ukraine. We think that this partnership is going to unlock previously impossible mission-critical solutions, and provide unique responses for assured PNT within our radio frequency- congested environments. It will also set a new standard for global communication services in complex and challenging operating conditions. We did deploy the system at three different locations across the theater. It is active within a conflict scenario, and we were very pleased with the performance results. We're now looking at how we expand that into INDOPACOM and other areas.
Excellent. You can potentially bring into other geographies as well.
Y es.
Great. Thanks, Carey, Matt and Dave . Have a great day.
Thanks, Louis.
Thanks, Louis.
That's all the time we have for questions today. I'd like to turn the call back to Dave Spille for closing remarks.
Thank you, and thanks again for joining this morning. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to give me a call. We look forward to catching up with you over the coming weeks. With that, we'll end today's call. Have a great day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.