Required to please investors and meet board members' expectations, construction's publicly traded companies face more scrutiny and oversight than their privately held counterparts.
2019 was a year of ups and downs for many of the industry's public firms, with some dealing with challenges related to profits, risk and debt, and 2020 will undoubtedly bring new opportunities and issues for Wall Street's construction and engineering companies.
The experts interviewed for this article said they are confident about the construction and engineering sector in general, thanks to falling interest rates, high consumer confidence and a more relaxed regulatory environment.
Trade uncertainty is the “biggest notable headwind” for 2020, said Andrew J. Wittmann, senior research analyst with Baird Equity Research's Industrial Services division, adding that publicly traded engineering companies that perform government contracting work like Jacobs Engineering Group, Parsons Corp. and KBR will be affected by the results of the 2020 presidential election, which could influence the federal government's spending on defense.
In addition, Middle East tensions and the price of oil could impact some firms active in oil and gas construction, according to Tim Hynes, head of Debtwire's North American research. He is most confident about companies that focus on infrastructure work, as he sees higher-than-average growth for that sector this year.
Above all, the biggest theme for 2020 is that publicly traded E&C firms will continue to seek more ways to avoid risk, a trend that was also front and center last year. If large U.S. contractors succeed in transferring, minimizing or avoiding risk, it will be years before the effects are felt on the companies' bottom line, according to Michael Corelli, vice president and senior credit officer for Moody's Investor Service.
"These companies have built up sizable backlogs so whatever changes they make to bidding and contingencies wouldn't impact them in the near term," he said.
Here, Construction Dive takes a look at the year ahead for some of the industry's most newsworthy publics.
McDermott
Despite efforts to appease debtors late last year, E&C giant McDermott is expected to soon file for bankruptcy, analysts told Construction Dive, citing news reports in late December that indicated that the company is negotiating with lenders regarding a $2 billion bankruptcy loan. 
“Only time will tell,” said Corelli, “but all the signs are there.”
A filing would help the firm purge its debt and continue on with its $20 billion backlog of work, he said.
“I expect they’ll continue to operate with the goal of doing whatever it takes to make customers comfortable that they’ll be there to finish their projects,” Corelli said.
