Northrop Grumman lifts annual forecasts, passes on fighter jet competition By Reuters

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<span>© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Bushmaster Chain Guns manufactured by Northrop Grumman are displayed during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Global Force Symposium &amp; Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo</span><br />
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<p>By Pratyush Thakur and Mike Stone</p>
<p>(Reuters) -Northrop Grumman raised its full-year profit and revenue forecasts on Thursday, but shares slid when the company said it would not compete as a prime contractor for the U.S. Air Forces’ sixth-generation fighter jet.</p>
<p>Shares were down 4.2% during trading in New York. </p>
<p>Northrop (NYSE:), <span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name"> Lockheed Martin </span></span> Corp (NYSE:) and Boeing (NYSE:) Co were expected to compete as prime contractors for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which will replace Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor with a fighter built to battle alongside drones.</p>
<p>“We have notified the U.S. Air Force that we’re not planning to respond to the NGAD RFP as a prime,” Northrop Chief Executive Kathy Warden told investors on a post earnings conference call. </p>
<p>Despite side-stepping the new fighter jet competition Northrop said the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Indo-Pacific have compelled countries in these regions to ramp up their military spending.</p>
<p>“There is strong demand across Europe,” Dave Keffer Northrop’s CFO told Reuters in an interview. “We had eight potential new customers come in for a demonstration of our IBCS capabilities – our integrated battle management system – that has been in very high demand.” </p>
<p>Munitions and missile defenses were two other high-demand areas Keffer highlighted.</p>
<p>European demand for U.S. weaponry is soaring, but instead of big-ticket items like jets and tanks, shopping lists are focused on cheaper, less-sophisticated items such as shoulder-fired missiles, artillery, and drones that have proven critical to Ukraine’s war efforts. </p>
<p>Northrop’s aeronautic systems business, which houses its new B21 Raider jet program, posted a 2% rise in sales at $2.60 billion in the second quarter.</p>
<p>Sales in its space system business, which makes satellites and payloads, jumped 17% to $3.49 billion, helped by a surge in investment for space exploration projects.</p>
<p>Northrop raised the lower end of its annual profit forecast from $22.25 per share. It now expects 2023 profit to be in the range of $22.45 to $22.85 per share.</p>
<p>The company also raised its annual sales outlook to between $38.4 billion and $38.8 billion, compared with its previous projection of $38 billion to $38.4 billion.</p>
<p>Its net earnings came in at $812 million, or $5.34 per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $6.06 a year earlier. </p>
<p>Northrop’s overall sales in the quarter rose 9% to $9.57 billion.</p>
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<br /><a href="https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/northrop-grumman-lifts-annual-forecasts-on-weapons-demand-3135935">Source link </a></p><p>The post <a href="https://forextraderhub.com/northrop-grumman-lifts-annual-forecasts-passes-on-fighter-jet-competition-by-reuters.html">Northrop Grumman lifts annual forecasts, passes on fighter jet competition By Reuters</a> first appeared on <a href="https://forextraderhub.com">Forex Trader Hub</a>.</p>