Northrop Grumman Profit And Sales Rise, Beat Expectations

Northorp Grumman Corp. reported Wednesday second-quarter net profit of $552 million, or $3.15, up from $517 million, or $2.85 a share, in the same period a year ago. That beat the FactSet consensus of $2.86. Revenue rose to $6.38 billion from $6.00 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $2.86 billion. Aerospace systems revenue rose 14% to $2.97 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $2.80 billion, and mission systems revenue grew 3% to $2.78 billion to exceed expectations of $2.75 billion. Technology systems sales fell 3% to $1.18 billion, but topped the FactSet consensus of $1.16 billion. "Our results represent solid operational performance from all three of our businesses and support our strategy to drive profitable growth over the long term," said Chief Executive Wes Bush. For 2017, the defense contractor raised its EPS outlook to $12.10 to $12.40 from $11.80 from $12.10, and revised its sales outlook to "low" $25 billion from about $25 billion. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has rallied 13.5% year to date, while the S&P 500 has climbed 10.6%.