Source: U.S. DoD
An F-35A Lightning II aircraft fires an AIM 120 missile.
Lockheed Martin delivered first-quarter earnings on Tuesday that were far above Wall Street expectations.
The world's largest defense contractor also updated its forecast for 2019 financial results, with earnings anticipated between $20.05 a share and $20.35 a share – up from a range of $19.15 a share to $19.45 share. Expected full year revenue was also increased, to a range between $56.8 billion and $58.3 billion — up from $55.8 billion to $57.3 billion.
Lockheed saw first-quarter earnings of $5.99 a share, an increase of 49% compared to the same period last year.
Shares of Lockheed Martin rose more than 5% from Monday's close of $315.26 a share.
Expectations vs. Results
Earnings per share: $5.99 vs. $4.34 expected in a Refinitiv surveyRevenue: $14.3 billion vs. $12.6 billion expected in the surveyLockheed added language regarding "government actions to prevent the sale or delivery of the corporation's products" to its list of factors that may affect any forward-looking statements. It said government actions include delays from Congress on export approvals for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
The contractor also said trade policies or sanctions could impact business as well as the Pentagon's recent decision to suspend sales of F-35 aircraft to Turkey.
Earlier this month, the U.S. halted delivery of two F-35 fighter jets to Turkey to deter Ankara from following through with a multibillion-dollar deal to buy a Russian missile system. As it stands, Turkey faces removal from Lockheed's F-35 program, forfeiture of 100 promised F-35 jets, cancellation of a Patriot missile defense deal and the imposition of U.S. sanctions as well as potential blowback from NATO members if the deal with Russia for the S-400 missile system is completed.
The F-35, Lockheed Martin's largest program, is financed and manufactured in part by Turkey. If the NATO ally is kicked out of the F-35 group, Lockheed would need to replace Turkey's manufacturing of the F-35′s fuselage and landing gear. Additionally, the 100 F-35 jets Turkey hoped to add to its budding arsenal will be shuffled in the company's intricate production schedule to ensure that the defense giant's assembly line will hum along without skipping a beat.
Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics are also due to report quarterly earnings this week.