Lockheed Martin Tops Forecasts, Raises Outlook

by Christopher Freeburn | July 24, 2012 11:20 am

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT[1]) shook off the prospect of looming cuts in U.S. defense spending to raise its outlook for the year.

The defense contractor announced today that its second-quarter net income from continuing operations[2] was $781 million, up 4.4% from $748 million during the same time last year.

Sales for the quarter were $11.9 billion, up 3.3% from 2011.

EPS came in at $2.38, easily topping the $1.91 predicted by analysts, Bloomberg noted.

The company also raised its forecast for the year, projecting 2012 earnings of between $7.90 and $8.10 a share. That was up from estimates ranging from $7.70 to $7.90 issued in January.

Wall Street is looking for earnings of about $7.89 a share for the year.

Its much-vaunted, but also much-criticized F-35 Joint Strike Fighter accounted for just $200 million in sales at its Aeronautics unit, whose overall sales inched up 1% during the quarter to $3.41 billion. Electronics Systems sales increased 2.3% to $3.87 billion. The Space Systems division saw its sales rise 18% to $2.38 billion due to more commercial satellite deliveries.

The Information Systems & Global Solutions unit sounded a sour note with sales dropping 4.1% to $2.3 billion.

Lockheed Martin’s chairman and CEO, Robert Stevens, has warned that if Washington fails to stop more than $500 billion in automatic defense cuts over the next ten years, the company may have to slash its workforce by up to 10,000 workers.

Shares of Lockheed Martin rose fractionally in Tuesday morning trading.

Endnotes:

  1. LMT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=LMT
  2. second-quarter net income from continuing operations: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-24/lockheed-profit-rises-4-percent-as-full-year-forecast-increased

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