Northrop Gruman 1Q Results Beat Expectations, Lifts Full Year Outlook

Northrop Grumman Corporation

reported net earnings of $556 million, or $3.03 per share, up 15% from $484 million, or $2.41 per share in the first quarter of 2015. The recent quarter results included a tax benefit of $80 million, or $0.44 per share. Excluding the gain, it would have earned $2.59 a share, which exceeded the Street analysts' expectations by $0.10 a share. The company's sales were $5.96 billion, which was flat with the previous year quarter. Revenue came in modestly above the analysts' expectations of $5.93 billion. Northrop said that the first quarter earnings per share were based on 183.4 million weighted average shares outstanding compared with 200.5 million shares in the same quarter last year representing 8.5% drop. The company also bought back 1.5 million shares of its common stock in the first quarter of the current year. The company's Chairman, President and CEO, Wes Bush, said that "Our first quarter operational results support our outlook for 2016. We are positioned to achieve profitable growth over the long term. Congratulations to our entire team for another quarter of solid performance." Northrop indicated that its total backlog increased and reflected higher backlog at Aerospace Systems and Mission Systems apart from a modest decline in backlog at Technology Services. The company added that it recorded various awards during the quarter, which included a portion of the B-21 Long-Range Strike Bomber program. Moving ahead, the company boosted its earnings outlook to $10.40 - $10.70 a share for the full year from $9.90 - $10.20. This is well ahead of the Street analysts' predictions of $10.23 a share for the same period. However, the company retained its sales forecast of $23.5 - $24.0 billion while analysts expect $23.88 billion. Shares of the company gained 1.41% on Tuesday.