Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT) stock fell 0.87% (As on April 19, 11:14:01 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company’s first-quarter results surpassed Wall Street targets despite parts and labor shortages, as simmering geopolitical tensions fueled demand from both U.S. and international customers. Rising tensions in Europe, the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region have translated to more orders for Lockheed’s F-35 fighter aircraft, missiles and other defense equipments. During the quarter, Australia said it would buy 40 Black Hawk military helicopters made by Lockheed from the U.S. for about $1.96 billion as it boosts defense spending over issues with China’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Lockheed had also finalized a deal to sell 88 F-35 jets to Canada in a $14.2 billion project to replace the country’s aging fleet of fighter aircraft. Supply-chain issues stemming from the pandemic are still hurting F-35 production volumes though, pulling down sales at the company’s aeronautics unit – its largest – by about 2.1% to $6.27 billion in the quarter. Lockheed’s order backlog also fell to $145.1 billion as of quarter-end from $150 billion at the end of 2022.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s $858 billion defense budget for 2023 has also resulted in multiple contract wins for U.S. defense firms such as Lockheed, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman Corp, which count the U.S. Department of Defense as their biggest customer
LMT in the first quarter of FY 23 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $6.43, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $6.06. The company had reported the adjusted revenue of $15.13 billion in the first quarter of FY 23, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $15.03 billion.
The missiles maker reaffirmed its full-year outlook, projecting net sales in the range of about $65 billion to $66 billion and profits between $26.60 and $26.90 per share.
On the other hand, the company announced that its In-space Upgrade Satellite System (LM LINUSS™) accomplished a successful on-orbit demonstration, proving how small satellites can serve an essential role in sustaining critical space architectures. They do this by regularly upgrading existing constellations with new capabilities and extending spacecraft design lifecycles. LM LINUSS could be considered the most capable pair of CubeSats in geosynchronous Earth orbit today, based on customer community feedback. The spacecraft have higher bus density, payload accommodation and on-orbit processing than any other CubeSat, which helps enable revolutionary mission capabilities in the future. Part of Lockheed Martin’s LM 50 smallsat family, it is the collaborative integration of the company’s mission electro-optical payload deck with a next-generation bus from Terran Orbital Corporation.