Cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh Quý 2 năm tài chính 2027 của Argan (AGX): Doanh thu đạt kỷ lục 384 triệu USD

Argan Inc. (NYSE: AGX) đã báo cáo doanh thu và lợi nhuận kỷ lục trong quý tài chính thứ hai kết thúc vào ngày 31 tháng 7 năm 2026, nhờ hoạt động gia tăng ở cả ba mảng kinh doanh. Mảng Năng lượng tiếp tục là động lực tăng trưởng chính, trong khi ban lãnh đạo cảnh báo rằng doanh thu được ghi nhận sớm vào quý 2 có thể làm hạn chế mức tăng trưởng so với quý trước trong quý 3.

Các điểm chính

• Doanh thu quý tài chính thứ 2 năm 2027 tăng 62% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên mức kỷ lục 384 triệu USD, dẫn đầu là hoạt động dự án ở mảng Năng lượng.
• Lợi nhuận ròng đạt mức kỷ lục 53,3 triệu USD, tương đương 3,76 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu pha loãng, so với 35,3 triệu USD, tương đương 2,50 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu pha loãng của một năm trước đó.
• EBITDA điều chỉnh tăng lên 70 triệu USD từ mức 38,5 triệu USD, với biên EBITDA điều chỉnh mở rộng từ 16,2% lên 18,2%.
• Giá trị hợp đồng chờ thực hiện (backlog) đạt 2,5 tỷ USD vào ngày 31 tháng 7 năm 2026, giảm từ mức 2,9 tỷ USD vào đầu năm tài chính 2027. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ bổ sung thêm một vài dự án trong vòng 7 đến 15 tháng tới.
• Argan nắm giữ khoảng 1 tỷ USD tiền mặt và các khoản đầu tư, có 440 triệu USD thanh khoản ròng và không có nợ vào cuối quý.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến doanh thu năm tài chính 2027 sẽ cao hơn đáng kể so với năm tài chính 2026, nhưng cho biết hoạt động mạnh mẽ trong quý 2 có thể dẫn đến mức tăng trưởng so với quý trước bị hạn chế trong quý 3.

Kết quả tài chính chính

Trong 6 tháng đầu năm tài chính 2027, doanh thu tăng 56,5% lên 674,9 triệu USD. Lợi nhuận ròng tăng từ 57,8 triệu USD (tương đương 4,09 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu pha loãng) lên 99,4 triệu USD (tương đương 7,01 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu pha loãng). EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt 126,5 triệu USD, tương ứng với biên lợi nhuận 18,7%, so với 70 triệu USD và 16,2% của cùng kỳ năm trước.

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

Năng lượng

Doanh thu mảng Năng lượng tăng 53% lên 301 triệu USD và chiếm 78% doanh thu hợp nhất. Thu nhập kế toán trước thuế đạt 66 triệu USD, trong khi biên lợi nhuận gộp mảng đạt 22,4%.

Backlog mảng Năng lượng của Argan bao gồm 4 nhà máy chạy bằng khí đốt tại Mỹ với tổng công suất hơn 4,1 gigawatt. Công ty đang tiến hành một nhà máy chu trình hỗn hợp công suất 1,2 gigawatt cho SLEC tại Texas, một dự án CPV 1,4 gigawatt, một dự án 86 megawatt tại Texas và một nhà máy chu trình hỗn hợp 700 megawatt tại Mỹ.

Về mặt quốc tế, công việc tiếp tục được thực hiện tại hai dự án ở Ireland: Nhà máy điện thế hệ mới Tarbert công suất 300 megawatt cho SSE Thermal và một cơ sở nhiệt điện 170 megawatt.

Khoảng 80% tổng giá trị hợp đồng chờ thực hiện bao gồm các dự án khí tự nhiên, so với 11% dự án năng lượng tái tạo và 8% công trình công nghiệp. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến các dự án chu trình hỗn hợp phức tạp sẽ chiếm phần lớn backlog trong ngắn và trung hạn.

Công nghiệp

Doanh thu mảng Công nghiệp tăng 111% lên 76 triệu USD, chiếm 20% doanh thu hợp nhất. Thu nhập kế toán trước thuế đạt khoảng 4 triệu USD, và biên lợi nhuận gộp đạt 7,3%.

Backlog của mảng này đạt tổng cộng 210 triệu USD. Argan đang xây dựng nhà máy chế tạo thứ hai tại Bắc Carolina, chủ yếu nhằm hỗ trợ hợp đồng trung tâm dữ liệu trị giá 125 triệu USD liên quan đến bể giãn nở nhiệt và bể lưu trữ năng lượng. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến cơ sở này sẽ hoàn thành vào quý 3 năm tài chính 2027.

Công ty cũng đang thực hiện một nhà máy tái chế và xử lý nước tại Alabama. Ban lãnh đạo nhận thấy thêm các cơ hội trong các trung tâm dữ liệu, công trình công nghiệp liên quan đến năng lượng và dịch vụ chế tạo.

Teledata

Doanh thu mảng Teledata tăng 40% lên 7 triệu USD, chiếm 2% doanh thu hợp nhất. Biên lợi nhuận gộp đạt 16,6%.

Argan đã thâu tóm Valcor Communications có trụ sở tại Connecticut vào cuối quý. Giao dịch này giúp mở rộng mảng kinh doanh sang vùng New England và bổ sung thêm các khách hàng thuộc danh sách Fortune 500 trong các lĩnh vực công nghệ, quốc phòng và hàng không vũ trụ. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết tăng trưởng tự thân, hiệu ứng cộng hưởng từ thương vụ thâu tóm và việc thực hiện kế hoạch chiến lược có khả năng nhân đôi doanh thu Teledata so với mức của năm tài chính 2026 và hỗ trợ tăng trưởng EBITDA trong nhiều quý tới và xa hơn nữa.

Dự báo của ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến doanh thu năm tài chính 2027 sẽ cao hơn đáng kể so với năm tài chính 2026. Tuy nhiên, doanh thu quý 2 đã vượt kỳ vọng trước đó của công ty ở tất cả các mảng, đặc biệt là Năng lượng, và một số hoạt động đã được đẩy nhanh tiến độ ghi nhận trước. Do đó, mức tăng trưởng doanh thu so với quý trước trong quý 3 có thể bị hạn chế.

Doanh thu mảng Công nghiệp dự kiến sẽ giảm so với mức quý 2 trong thời gian còn lại của năm tài chính 2027. Cơ sở chế tạo mới tại Bắc Carolina dự kiến sẽ đóng góp mức tăng doanh thu đáng kể cho mảng Công nghiệp vào cuối năm và sang năm tiếp theo, ở mức khoảng 10 triệu USD trở lên mỗi quý.

Argan dự kiến sẽ bổ sung thêm một vài dự án trong vòng 7 đến 15 tháng tới. Ban lãnh đạo tin rằng lực lượng lao động và nguồn lực đào tạo của công ty có thể hỗ trợ đồng thời 10 đến 12 dự án, mặc dù công suất phụ thuộc vào quy mô và độ phức tạp của dự án.

Rủi ro và các điểm cần theo dõi

• Biên lợi nhuận gộp hợp nhất đã giảm từ 25,0% trong quý 4 năm tài chính 2026 xuống 21,0% trong quý 1 năm tài chính 2027 và 19,3% trong quý 2 do các dự án Năng lượng mới hơn tạo ra nhiều doanh thu giai đoạn đầu hơn. Biên lợi nhuận có thể biến động theo cơ cấu dự án, giai đoạn xây dựng và thời điểm hoàn thành.
• Biên lợi nhuận mảng Công nghiệp thấp hơn kỳ vọng của ban lãnh đạo vì hiệu quả kinh tế ước tính khi hoàn thành bị suy giảm ở một số dự án không liên quan đến hợp đồng trung tâm dữ liệu. Các dự án này sẽ kết thúc trong vòng 6 tháng tới và biên lợi nhuận của mảng có thể vẫn ở dưới mức lịch sử trong một hoặc hai quý nữa.
• Giá trị hợp đồng chờ thực hiện (backlog) giảm xuống 2,5 tỷ USD do việc thực hiện dự án và ghi nhận doanh thu vượt quá các hợp đồng Năng lượng mới lớn được trao. Ban lãnh đạo lưu ý rằng backlog có thể biến động đáng kể tùy thuộc vào thời điểm phát lệnh khởi công.
• Các dự án trung tâm dữ liệu và năng lượng mới phụ thuộc vào các mốc quan trọng bao gồm hợp đồng mua bán điện, giấy phép, khả năng tiếp cận nguồn khí đốt và nước, nguồn cung tua-bin và việc huy động vốn.
• Thương vụ thâu tóm Valcor Communications mang lại những rủi ro về tích hợp và thực thi trong chiến lược Teledata.
• Argan thường sử dụng hợp đồng trọn gói (giá cố định), khiến việc lựa chọn hợp đồng, chi phí lao động, lạm phát và rủi ro thực thi theo từng địa điểm trở thành những yếu tố quan trọng cần cân nhắc.

Điểm nổi bật trong phiên Hỏi & Đáp với chuyên gia phân tích

Danh mục dự án tiềm năng: Ban lãnh đạo đã đề cập đến một số lượng đáng kể các yêu cầu gửi đến nhưng vẫn duy trì cách tiếp cận thận trọng đối với lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng. Hơn 260 triệu USD bổ sung từ việc mở rộng quy mô, các dự án mới nhỏ hơn và doanh thu trong quý đã giúp bù đắp cho việc chuyển đổi lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng trong nửa đầu năm.

Tuyển dụng và công suất: Quy mô nhân sự đang ở mức kỷ lục và cao hơn đáng kể so với năm trước. Argan tiếp tục tuyển dụng và đào tạo nhân viên trên cả ba mảng kinh doanh trong khi vẫn duy trì ước tính công suất từ 10 đến 12 dự án đồng thời.

Trung tâm dữ liệu và môi trường pháp lý: Mặc dù có các báo cáo về việc tạm dừng và sự phản đối ảnh hưởng đến việc phát triển trung tâm dữ liệu, ban lãnh đạo cho biết họ chưa quan sát thấy sự thay đổi nào trong hành vi của nhà phát triển. Argan tiếp tục cung cấp các dịch vụ giai đoạn đầu cho một số nhà phát triển.

Biên lợi nhuận mảng Năng lượng: Ban lãnh đạo cho rằng biên lợi nhuận gộp mảng Năng lượng đạt trên 22% ở cả quý 1 và quý 2 năm tài chính một phần là nhờ thực thi thành công và hoàn thành dự án sớm. Biên lợi nhuận trong tương lai sẽ tiếp tục nhạy cảm với cơ cấu dự án và các giai đoạn xây dựng.

Phân bổ vốn: Argan đã hoàn trả 51,7 triệu USD cho các cổ đông trong 6 tháng đầu năm tài chính 2027. Cổ tức hàng quý của công ty là 0,50 USD/cổ phiếu, tương đương 2,00 USD mỗi năm. Hạn mức mua lại cổ phiếu có tổng giá trị 200 triệu USD và kéo dài đến ngày 31 tháng 1 năm 2030; khoảng 123,8 triệu USD đã được hoàn trả thông qua mua lại kể từ khi chương trình bắt đầu.

Toàn văn Biên bản Cuộc họp Báo cáo Lợi nhuận

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Argan Inc. Earnings Conference Call for the Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2027 ended July 31, 2026. This call is being recorded.

[Operator Instructions]

There is a slide presentation that accompanies today's remarks, which can be accessed via the webcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host for today, Jennifer Belodeau of IMS Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Jennifer Belodeau

Thank you. Good evening, and welcome to our conference call to discuss Arden's results for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 ended July 31, 2026. On the call today, we have David Watson, Chief Executive Officer; and Josh Baugher, Chief Financial Officer. I'll take a moment to read the safe harbor statements made during this conference call and presented in the presentation that are not based on historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, projections or statements of future goals and targets regarding company's revenues and profits. These statements are subject to known and unknown factors and risks.

The company's actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and some of the factors and risks that could cause or contribute to such material differences have been described in this afternoon's press release and in Argan's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information and understandings that are believed to be accurate as of today, and we do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements.

Earlier this afternoon, the company issued a press release announcing its second quarter fiscal 2027 financial results and filed its corresponding Form 10-Q report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Okay. With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to David Watson, CEO of Argan. Please go ahead, David.

David Watson

Thanks, Jennifer, and thank you, everyone, for joining today. I'll start by reviewing some highlights of our operations and activities in Josh Baugher our CFO will go over our financial results, then we'll open up the call for questions. Our strong second quarter built on the momentum we created in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, demonstrating our operational strength across our business. Each of our operating segments recorded substantially improved revenue, contributing to our record consolidated revenue of $384 million for the quarter.

Our Power and Industrial segments delivered significant revenue growth of 53% and 111%, respectively, for the quarter, with Teladata revenue growing 40%. Our second quarter highlights include consolidated gross margin of 19.3%, record net income of $53.3 million or $3.76 per diluted share record adjusted EBITDA of $70 million and adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.2%.

We also executed at the end of the quarter on M&A with the purchase of Valcore Communications a Connecticut-based provider of installation and repair services for information, communication and data networks. We're excited about the addition of ValCor, which strengthens our Tele data segment giving us a presence in New England and bringing a client base of Fortune 500 technology, defense and aerospace customers from the region.

Our balance sheet remains strong with approximately $1 billion of cash and investments, net liquidity of $440 million and no debt at July 31, 2026, and we continued our practice of returning capital to our shareholders through our quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, which is $2 per share on an annual basis. So a very strong quarter overall with a lot of progress made.

Now on to the operational review. We have 3 reportable business segments: power, industrial and tele data. Our Power segment is our largest, building all types of power facilities, including thermal and a variety of renewables, including solar, solar with battery energy storage systems, biofuel and biomass facilities. Power segment revenues grew 53% and contributed $301 million or 78% of total revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2027 with pretax book income of $66 million.

The Industrial segment provides field services supporting new plant construction and additions for industrial facilities and fabricated metal components like piping systems and pressure vessels in its fabrication facility. Revenue increased by 111% to $76 million in the second quarter or 20% of consolidated revenue with pretax book income of approximately $4 million. Backlog for the Industrial segment was $210 million at July 31, 2026, and construction on our second fabrication facility is progressing well.

Finally, revenue in our Tele data segment grew 40% to $7 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and contributed 2% of consolidated revenue. Tele data provides project management and construction services across power distribution and information, communications and data networks for commercial and industrial customers. The segment works with data centers as well as with federal government locations and military installations requiring high-level security clearance.

As I just mentioned, we expect that our recent acquisition of Valcor will expand and extend our reach as a provider of Teledata services.

Turning to our backlog. Our consultant backlog of fully committed projects is $2.5 billion at July 31, 2026, and a decrease from $2.9 billion at the start of fiscal 2027. As you all know, we take a conservative approach to reporting backlog and typically only include the value of a contract and backlog when we've received a notice to proceed. Because of that, our backlog amount will move around from quarter-to-quarter related to the completion of certain projects and start time of pending projects.

Our pipeline remains exceptionally strong, reflecting the demand for the reliable 24/7 energy resources needed to power an economy that is increasingly reliant on electrification. Demand for our capabilities across all 3 operating segments is high, particularly in our Power segment, where our current backlog includes 4 gas-fired power plants in the United States, totaling over 4.1 gigawatts.

Our Industrial segment is also seeing strong demand, highlighted by a data center contract we were awarded in November 2025 for the fabrication of thermal expansion and energy storage tanks. As we discussed on last quarter's call, we are currently building an additional fabrication facility in North Carolina to support this project and to better position the company to address new opportunities. The new facility is on track for completion later this year.

As we move forward, we remain confident in our expectation that we will add a handful of new projects over the next 7 to 15 months. With the timing of our projects and the teams we have in place as well as those that are in training, we believe we are well positioned to execute on 10 to 12 jobs simultaneously. There continues to be a great deal of media and industry coverage around a significant increase in power demand due to the electrification of our economy. This dynamic includes the onshoring of domestic manufacturing, the use of EVs and the building of data centers, all of which are driving urgency around the build cycle for additional energy infrastructure to support an already stressed power grid.

Gas-fired plants are widely recognized as the ideal solution for delivering reliable, uninterrupted power and there are a limited number of firms, including Argan, who have the capabilities to successfully execute these complex construction projects. Despite some recent regulatory back and forth around data center development that's been in the news, the demand environment for our services remains very strong and that, combined with our proven track record is allowing us to remain selective in pursuing the right projects in the right locations with the right partners.

Our backlog is currently composed of approximately 80% natural gas projects, 11% renewable and 8% industrial. With the current demand of natural gas-fired facilities and our core competencies in building these types of projects, we expect complex combined cycle projects, which will represent the majority of our backlog for the near and midterm.

Renewable energy still plays an important role as a power resource. And we subscribe to an all of the above approach when it comes to power generation. We plan to maintain our renewable capabilities so that we remain competitively positioned to meet market demand and customer needs, but our core activities will center around natural gas builds.

Slide 7 highlights the selection of our major projects currently underway or recently awarded. As you know, during the first quarter, we reached substantial completion ahead of schedule on the final project of our 3-part Midwest solar and battery projects and now that project has reached final completion. In addition, we expect to reach substantial completion ahead of schedule for our 405-megawatt Midwest solar project later this month. Given the complexity of our projects, our ability to reach early completion milestone shows the high level proficiency of our teams and staying on task and on schedule, delivering excellent execution throughout a multiyear project.

In Texas, our 1.2-gigawatt ultra-efficient combined cycle natural gas fire plant for SLEC is moving forward as expected, and construction is ramping at our 2 other gas-fired projects in Texas the 1.4 gigawatt project with CPV and our 86-megawatt project. We're also making good progress on our 700-megawatt combined cycle natural gas fired power plant in the U.S.

Looking internationally, our 2 projects in Ireland, the Tarbert next-generation power station, a 300-megawatt biofuel plant for SSE Thermal and our 170-megawatt thermal facility are progressing well. As I mentioned earlier, our Industrial segment has a $125 million data center project underway and is also working on the recycling and water treatment plant in Alabama.

Our project portfolio is diverse in terms of scope, scale, complexity and location, but all of our teams approach each project with the highest commitment to excellent execution and our reputation as a reliable partner is a testament to that diligent approach.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Josh Baugher to take us through the financials for the second quarter and first 6 months of 2027. Go ahead, Josh.

Joshua Baugher

Thanks, David, and good evening, everyone. On Slide 8, we present our consolidated earnings for the second quarter and first 6 months of fiscal 2027 ended July 31, 2026. As David mentioned, we delivered record second quarter revenues of $384 million, an increase of 62% as compared to $237.7 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. The increase is primarily due to the activity ramp of certain projects in our Power segment. For the second quarter, Argan reported consolidated gross profit of approximately $74.2 million or a gross margin of 19.3% and Consolidated gross profit for the comparative quarter last fiscal year was $44.3 million, representing a gross margin of 18.6%.

The increase in gross profit and improvement in gross margin for the recently ended quarter was primarily driven by our Power segment, reflecting a shift in project and contract mix and strong project execution. Gross margins for our Power, Industrial and Tele segments were 22.4%, 7.3% and 16.6%, respectively, for the second quarter of fiscal 2027.

Consolidated gross margin has stepped down over the past 3 quarters from 25% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 to 21% in Q1 of fiscal 2027 and now 19.3% in the second quarter. As you know, our margins will vary from quarter-to-quarter depending on several factors, including project mix and where our projects sit in their construction cycle. When we complete projects early, we typically have an opportunity to realize some margin benefit. We saw that dynamic with the early completion of a couple of our projects in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 and Q1 of fiscal 2027, which favorably impacted consolidated margin.

In the second quarter, our consolidated margin reflects earlier stage revenues for our current projects in the Power segment. As projects ramp and get into the second and third year of construction, we expect to see higher revenues and with successful execution, we have the opportunity to enhance margin.

Selling, general and administration expense of $17.4 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and increase as compared to SG&A of $14.2 million for the comparable prior year period. However, as a percentage of revenue, SG&A decreased to 4.5% compared to 6% in the comparable quarter. Other income net for the 3 months ended July 31, 2026, was 10.1%, which primarily reflected investment income earned during the period. Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and was a record $53.3 million or $3.76 per diluted share compared to $35.3 million or $2.50 per diluted share for last year's comparable quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of fiscal 2027 was $70 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.2% compared to adjusted EBITDA of $38.5 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.2%. Looking at our year-to-date performance, revenue for the first 6 months of fiscal 2027 increased by 56.5% to $674.9 million as compared to revenues of $431.4 million for the prior year period. Our consolidated gross margin of 20.1% for the first half of fiscal 2027 and increase as compared to gross margin of 18.8% for the first 6 months of fiscal 2026 primarily due to the same reasons described for the quarter.

SG&A expenses increased to $33.1 million for the first 6 months of fiscal 2027 as compared to $26.7 million for the first 6 months of fiscal 2026 and but decreased as a percentage of revenues to 4.9% as compared to 6.2% in the first half of last fiscal year. Net income for the 6 months of the fiscal year was $99.4 million or $7.01 per diluted share compared to $57.8 million of $4.09 per diluted share for the first 6 months of last fiscal year.

Adjusted EBITDA was $126.5 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.7% for the first half of fiscal 2027 and compared with adjusted EBITDA of $70 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.2% for the first half of fiscal 2026.

With that, I'll turn the call back to David.

David Watson

Thanks, Josh. Our balance sheet remains strong with approximately $1 billion in cash and investments, generating meaningful investment yields at July 31, 2026. Our net liquidity was $440 million, and we had no debt. We believe that our balance sheet is a competitive advantage as it supports our growing operations organically and inorganically, expands bonding capacity and provides customers a reliable and bankable EPC partner.

Stockholders' equity was over $0.5 billion at July 31, 2026. This liquidity bridge demonstrates that our business model ordinarily requires a low level of capital expenditures. Our net liquidity of $440 million at July 31, 2026, an increase of $19 million compared to net liquidity of $421 million at January 31, 2026, as we returned $51.7 million of capital to our shareholders during the first 6 months of fiscal 2027.

Our capital allocation strategy is disciplined and focused on 4 core areas. First, we invest organically in the business. That means developing and retaining our people and adding headcount to make sure we were staffed to execute on our projects. It also means expanding our capabilities, such as building a new fabrication facility in North Carolina to position ourselves for anticipated data center customer demand.

Second, the company pays a quarterly dividend, which we increased 33% to $0.50 per common share in September 2025, bringing us to an annual dividend run rate of $2 per share. The increase represented our third consecutive year of raising our quarterly dividend, which cumulatively has increased by 100%, reflecting the strength of our business and our commitment to returning shareholder value. We have had a share buyback program in place since November of 2021. And during the first quarter of this fiscal year, our board increased the total repurchase authorization to $200 million and extend its expiration date through January 31, 2030. Since the program's inception, we have returned a total of approximately $123.8 million to shareholders through the repurchase program.

Finally, we seek M&A opportunities that could be additive or complementary to our current platform. Our acquisition of Valcor Communications is a great illustration of that strategy, giving us a presence in New England and expanding our client base to include the Fortune 500 technology, defense and aerospace companies in that region. We're excited about this addition and its anticipated contributions. We are energized by the demand we're seeing for our capabilities across all 3 business segments.

With our skill set and excellent track record of execution, Argan is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the urgent need for power infrastructure after a prolonged period of underinvestment and unprecedented increases in the demand for power. While we are energy agnostic and believe renewable will always have a role in power generation, gas-fired plants are integral to the reliable delivery of the uninterrupted 24/7 energy needed to power our economy.

The demand pipeline for complex combined cycle natural gas fire plants is substantial and we are one of only a few companies with the construction capabilities and proven track record of exceptional execution in building these facilities. We are excited for what lies ahead and intently focused on leveraging our teams, our solid financial position and our excellent reputation in the marketplace to expand our leadership position as a premier builder of industrial and energy infrastructure.

As always, I'd like to thank our entire team for their hard work and dedication to operational excellence. They are the core driver of our company's growth and success. I also thank our shareholders for their continued support and confidence in our company. With that, operator, let's open it up for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

The first question is from Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets.

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Robert Brown

Congrats on all the progress. First wanted to talk a little bit the pipeline looks like your commentary was about maybe a more near-term kind of execution pipeline. But could you kind of characterize the activity there and the number of projects or a sense of the projects that you're looking at?

David Watson

Absolutely, Rob, and thanks for the question. We have, historically, as you know, have been very conservative about predicting where our backlog can go and we're going to stick with that approach. We did say we expect to add a handful of new projects over the next 7 to 15 months and that reflects the current demand for natural gas-fired facilities. And we expect these complex buying cycle projects will represent the majority of our backlog for the near and midterm, but there will also be simple cycles as well.

As you know, we constantly are evaluating projects that meet the right time, conditions and best fit for our organization, and we have a significant number of inbound requests for our services. So I can't give a precise guideline at this time on new jobs. The reality is our next job could come next quarter or a year from now. And as you know, backlog performance can vary quarter-to-quarter depending on the timing of your projects.

We are pleased to keep the backlog over $2.5 billion despite not adding any major power projects in the quarter, given that we generated $675 million of revenue during the first 6 months. And I think it's important to note that we're able to offset some of that backlog burn with $260-plus million of additions through scope increases on existing jobs, adding new smaller jobs across the organization and intra-quarter revenues?

Robert Brown

Okay. Great. And then on the new facility build-out, I think you talked about some data center kind of market opportunity that, that opens up to you. Could you give us a sense of what sort of the revenue capacity is in that new facility and maybe some of the markets you're going after with it?

David Watson

Absolutely. Just the construction on that facility is going really well, and we expect to have that complete in Q3, which, to me, is a pretty significant acceleration and quick time line for building a new fabrication facility. Right now, it's primarily geared towards supporting that $125 million data center project that we're fabricating thermal expansion and entry storage change, and we expect a number of follow-on opportunities with that customer and frankly, expect that this facility will position the company for additional demand that we're seeing across our space.

So right now, obviously, there is any revenue coming out of that facility as it's still in construction phase, but we do expect for it to have a meaningful uptick in revenues for our industrial group later this year and into the next year around $10-plus million a quarter.

Operator

The next question comes from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

Christopher Moore

Congrats on another great quarter. a couple. So one of the things you've talked about previously with respect to expanding and capacity capabilities is just the need for to keep hiring and training new people. So I'm just trying to get a sense in terms of maybe where you are today from a employee account perspective versus perhaps a year ago? And where do you expect to be a year from now?

David Watson

Chris, appreciate the question. Jim is every month breaking new records of the number of employees that they have. It is a constant process to add and train to the organization to train folks in the away, and we constantly are adding folks. I think one of your questions might relate to what's our capacity of the number of jobs that we can take on. I'm still going to guide that capacity to 10 to 12 jobs at any one time, keep in mind a 2-gigawatt job is not the same as, say, a 500-megawatt job. So there could be some variability there ultimately.

But we continue to gear towards expanding that organization. Frankly, we're expanding all of our organizations in all of our business segments and our headcount is at record levels and meaningfully above where they were a year ago.

Christopher Moore

Got you. I appreciate that. Industrial gross margin was 7.3%. Is there -- maybe you could talk about that and certainly below kind of normal levels. Is there some cost from the expansion that's embedded in there? Or just what happened this quarter and kind of a more normalized level?

David Watson

Yes. I mean revenue grew -- it's obviously a record quarter in revenue, north of $70 million. I mean it grew year-over-year, 11%. A -- but you're correct. The margin profile was below our expectations. And frankly, there were a couple of projects unrelated to our data center work where the estimates to complete became below where we initially estimated at the project inception, which impacted our gross margins during the quarter. We expect to finish these projects over the next 6 months.

So industrial margins may run below historical norms for a quarter or 2 as these projects wind down. We're working hard to improve the economics of these projects as we expect strong execution across our teams regardless of the project challenges they face. Beyond that, we see a lot of exciting opportunities in our Industrial segment similar to what I said to Rob, especially in the data center market and frankly, in the power market for industrial as well as pairing that with our fabrication capabilities. And we'll remain focused on selecting the right projects and executing them profitably. So we're working through a couple.

Christopher Moore

Got it. And maybe just the last one for me. I think you kind of referenced this, and certainly, demand looks really strong. I mean the Texas governor, Greg abetrecently talked about halting 1,800 data center projects if there are grid requests for, I don't know, 5x all-time peak demand. I guess the question is any impact that you're seeing in Texas and just overall and any impact at all from kind of some -- more on the political side.

David Watson

Chris, there is still an urgency to get data centers and power plants built. And you're correct, there has been a lot of news lately with pauses and pushbacks on data centers. But there has really been no change in terms of developer behavior. It's still a matter of the developer being able to achieve all those milestones that we've talked about, right, such as getting power purchase agreements in place with an end user such as a hyperscaler, air permits access to gas, water permits, turbines, financing, et cetera.

We continue to work with several developers often through service arrangements on early activities as we anticipate kicking off some new projects over the next 7 to 15 months. So the there new there, but we're not seeing a change in behavior. -- and expect to be -- obviously, expect to add more backlog in the future here.

Christopher Moore

Sounds good. I will leave it there. I appreciate it.

David Watson

Thanks, Chris.

Operator

The next question is from Michael Fairbanks with JPMorgan.

Mark W. Strouse

This is Mark Strouse on for Michael. David, I believe you said earlier this year, I'm just kind of thinking about revenue sequencing earlier this year, I believe you said that you were expecting kind of sequential increases throughout the year. Just given the strength that you saw in 2Q, do you still think that you're going to grow during the second half of the year compared to 2Q?

David Watson

Mark, great question. Thanks for jumping on for Michael. It's clearly, it's our expectation that we will be meaningfully higher than fiscal year '26. We were able to achieve greater revenues than anticipated in Q2 across all of our business segments and especially in Power as such that some of this pull forward in Q2 may result in limited quarter over consecutive quarter growth in Q3, especially since we anticipate decreased industrial revenues compared to Q2, the rest of the year.

So as you know and as I've mentioned before, our revenues do move around related to where we are in the various construction phases of our projects underway. So we will see an impact from the timing of new project starts completion of projects and where we are in existing projects. So again, fiscal year '27 is expected to be significantly above fiscal year '26. The pace of revenue growth it's tough to tell, but you are correct. We did pull forward -- we did have a really strong revenue quarter in Q2.

Mark W. Strouse

Okay. And then just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about your latest thoughts on pricing. -- specifically within the Gema business. So the combined cycle gas turbine OEMs are still talking about pricing increasing. Curious what you can say either specific to your own business or kind of what you're seeing across the industry, that would be helpful.

David Watson

It still comes down to the type of contract comes down to the location, certain labor locations are much more significant than others when it comes to cost and getting the labor. So we believe our approach is appropriate as we take into consideration the market, we take in consideration inflation, labor costs, other risk factors in the contract type.

We typically do fixed-price contracts, as you know, Merck. So price -- I mean our margin profile that we've recorded over the last 3 quarters as Empower has been north of 2% and we expect for our contracts in the future to have meaningful pricing based off of the current market. But I wouldn't say that there is an ability to command higher pricing just because the market is evolving, but I do think we're able to get the right prices.

Operator

The next question comes from Alexa Bruno with Goldman Sachs.

Unknown Analyst

We wanted to ask on the power margins. The strength we saw this quarter -- how should we think about it? Was it driven by project execution milestones? Or is this more normalized baseline expectations? What are some of the moving pieces there?

David Watson

Alexa, thanks for the question, and thanks for joining us on the call. Our margins will vary from quarter-to-quarter depending on several factors including project mix, where we are in projects, where the projects sit in the construction cycle. We just completed power margins in Q2 or 22.4%. In Q1, they were 23.6%. So again, healthy north of 22% in both of those quarters. And some of that relates to completing some projects early. And so that's been beneficial when you're not incurring additional cost with due to the length of the project that can be beneficial.

But our overall margin outside of power was a little bit less than we were expecting but we remain confident in our ability to continue executing on our projects and capitalizing on opportunities in our pipeline to drive continued strong margins.

Unknown Analyst

Okay. That's very helpful. And then just a follow-up on the Valcor acquisition. Can you talk about the opportunity set there? And then how should we think about the potential for any further bolt-on M&A?

David Watson

Yes. We clearly have not done a lot of M&A over the last 10 years. So we were pleased to get Valcor to the finish line and to enhance our Tele data segment because we believe there will be synergies. And with organic growth and the synergies of Valcor and the progression on our strategic plan, it should result in a significant increase in our revenue run rate for Tele data, and frankly, which we expect to potentially double revenues from fiscal year '26 and drive EBITDA growth over the next couple of quarters and beyond.

There's obviously, with any M&A, there's risk of integration and continued execution of the Teledata strategy. And then, of course, as in everything, ensuring execution excellence. But we are excited about that business segment and how we can diversify our revenues and enhance shareholder value. And this success with this while it's albeit that it's a small acquisition as a reminder to the investing public that Argan does do M&A, though we are very stringent and picky as to when we do that but it is definitely one of our core capital allocation pillars in addition to buybacks and dividends and more importantly, investing in organic growth?

Unknown Analyst

That's very helpful. We'll turn it back.

Operator

We have no further questions in queue. I would now like to turn the floor back over to David Watson for closing remarks.

David Watson

Well, none of this was made possible without all the hard work that all of our teams in the field, all of our teams in the segments and the companies that are doing all this hard work. So I want to, again, thank each and every one of you for all of your efforts. And I also want to thank all of those participating in today's call. and we look forward to speaking with you again when we report third quarter fiscal 2027 results. Have a great evening.

Operator

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.