Northwest Pipe stock tumbles on loss

Northwest Pipe Co. saw its stock price plummet 16.5 percent Wednesday after releasing news of a multimillion-dollar loss Tuesday evening.

The Vancouver-headquartered company held an investor call Wednesday morning that painted a bleak picture of the water-transmission market but made clear the company isn’t going away anytime soon.

Northwest Pipe, a steel pipe water system manufacturer with operations throughout the country and in Mexico, is facing stiff competition from “non-traditional” companies entering the market, CEO Scott Montross said. That creates a competitive bidding landscape for projects and, as a result, much lower revenues than the year prior.

Those “non-traditional” competitors, though Montross didn’t mention any by name, appear to be migrating from the weak oil and gas market.

Northwest Pipe saw a loss from continuing operations of nearly $30 million, or $3.07 per diluted share, in 2015.

The first quarter of 2016 is not expected to improve over 2015, Montross said, due to project delays and a continued competitive environment. Yet, Montross said that a backlog of projects, a lack of debt and a 50 percent market share gives the company strong footing for the future — especially with drought conditions and population increases in states like Texas and California.

“Water is a precious resource, and it will need to move from place to place,” he said. “That’s what we do.”

Northwest Pipe, traded as NWPX on the NASDAQ, ended Wednesday with a stock price of $8.71. The lowest stock price in the past 52 weeks was $7.46, while the high during that period was $25.86.