Revenue during the quarter went up marginally by 0.25 percent to $404 million from $403 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 401 basis points over the previous year period to 17.82 percent. Operating margin for the quarter stood at negative 5.69 percent as compared to a negative 3.47 percent for the previous year period.

Operating loss for the quarter was $23 million, compared with an operating loss of $14 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $51 million compared with $76 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 623 basis points in the quarter to 12.62 percent from 18.86 percent in the last year period.

"We continued making meaningful progress across our strategic initiatives in the first quarter, nearing completion of construction of the Dublin facility, driving growth in our Environmental Solutions business, and beginning to process metals at our centralized non-ferrous processing facility," said Stephen J. Jones, Covanta's president and chief executive officer. “The fire and resulting downtime at the Fairfax facility impacted results in the first quarter, but recovery is well underway, with credit to our outstanding team on the ground. We expect to recoup much of the financial impact later in the year as we receive insurance payments. We also took the opportunity to accelerate scheduled outages at a few facilities into the first quarter while these facilities were down for other reasons, which contributed to our completing about 35% of our annual planned maintenance expense in Q1. We are very well positioned to post improved year-over-year performance for the balance of the year, and remain squarely on track with our full year outlook."

The company has spent $77 million cash to meet investing activities during the quarter as against cash outgo of $95 million in the last year period.

Cash flow from financing activities was $426 million for the quarter, up 526.47 percent or $358 million, when compared with the last year period.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at $444 million as on Mar. 31, 2017, up 318.87 percent or $338 million from $106 million on Mar. 31, 2016.

Working capital drops significantly
Covanta Holding Corporation has witnessed a decline in the working capital over the last year. It stood at $56 million as at Mar. 31, 2017, down 79.71 percent or $220 million from $276 million on Mar. 31, 2016. Current ratio was at 1.07 as on Mar. 31, 2017, down from 1.77 on Mar. 31, 2016.

Days sales outstanding went down to 66 days for the quarter compared with 67 days for the same period last year.

At the same time, days payable outstanding went down to 20 days for the quarter from 26 for the same period last year.