Post on 08-Jan-2017
Textron, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics Report: Three Stocks
– Three Winners!
A Tale of Three Defense ContractorsThree of America’s
biggest names in defense contracting reported earnings
this week – and the investing crowd went
wild!
What:Textron (NYSE: TXT) was first out of the gate, reporting earnings Tuesday morning and seeing its shares surge 9% in response.
So What:Quarterly sales slid 7%
year over year to $3.25 billion
Profits were off 18% at $0.60 per share
And manufacturing free cash flow dropped by nearly two-thirds to $89 million
Now What:Textron “beat earnings” for the quarter, which may explain why investors reacted so positively.
The plunge in free cash flow is nonetheless concerning.
Priced at more than 200 times this year’s likely cash profits, Textron
shares look very expensive.
What:
• Text
Next came Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC). The drone-maker reported runaway profits Wednesday, then watched its share price rocket more than 7%.
So What:Sales slipped 2% to $5.9
billionBut slightly higher
profit margins and a big reduction in share count led to…
…16% improvement in profits per share -- $2.74!
Now What:
Northrop Grumman has been taking on billions of dollars in
debt to fund its share buybacks.
That can’t continue forever. But if buybacks stop, earnings
growth will suffer.
Caveat investor.
Text
What:General Dynamics’ (NYSE: GD) results were nearly as good, as was its price pop. By early Friday, the shares were up more than 4%.
So What:General Dynamics
delivered perhaps the week’s best news:
Sales up 5.5% to $7.9 billion
Operating profit margins up one full percentage point
And a whopping 44% increase in earnings per share -- to $2.27
Text
Now What:CEO Phebe Novakovic called
her company’s performance “rock solid” – and we agree.
With billions of dollars of new armored vehicle contracts to execute, and a potential big shipbuilding win from
the US Coast Guard, General Dynamics’ future
looks very bright.
Text
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