By Calvin Biesecker
Defense Daily
Lockheed Martin on Tuesday posted strong financial results in its first quarter buoyed by operating performance, a lower tax rate and a pension tailwind, and the company raised the outlook for its top and bottom lines in 2018.
Net income soared 47 percent to $1.2 billion, or $4.02 earnings per share, from $789 million, or $2.69 a share, a year ago. Sales were up nearly 4 percent to $11.6 billion from $11.2 billion a year ago.
Other program contributors to the company’s strong bottom line were the sensors and global sustainment, air and missile defense, the F-35 fighter, and combat aircraft.
Among the revenue drivers was the Long-Range Standoff Weapon: the next-generation, nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missile Lockheed is helping to design under a three-year Pentagon contract awarded last year and worth about $900 million. The missile, which will be tipped with W80-4 warheads furnished by the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, will fly aboard the Air Force’s B-52, B-2 Spirit, and B-21 aircraft.
Based on the first-quarter results and expectations for the rest of the year, Lockheed Martin increased its earnings and sales guidance for 2018. Earnings are now expected to range between $15.80 and $16.10 per share, up $0.60 a share from the prior outlook based on stronger operating performance at Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, and Rotary and Mission Systems, plus a lower than expected tax rate.
