Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) — one of 30 companies listed on Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index — has reported third quarter earnings of $2.75 per share, 56 cents higher Wall Street analyst forecasts and 59 cents more than the prior year period.
The company posted a $516 million profit for the quarter and recorded $5.98 billion in revenue, figures respectively 9.09 percent higher and relatively flat compared to the same period last year.
Wall Street analysts expected the company to report approximately $5.88 billion in sales.
Northrop also raised its full-year earnings guidance to between $9.70 and $9.80 per share from the prior $9.55-to-$9.70 range and adjusted its 2015 sales outlook to between $23.6 billion and $23.8 billion from its previous $23.4 billion-to-$23.8 billion forecast.
In a subsequent call with investors, Chairman and CEO Wes Bush said the company’s reorganization from four segments to three is not a precursor for a sale or spinoff.
Northrop reported its earnings 14 hours after the Defense Department said the company won a multibillion dollar contract to build the U.S. Air Force‘s Long Range Strike Bomber.
Bush declined to answer investor questions on the program and referred investors to information from the Air Force on the program’s technical and monetary details.
The company repurchased 5.6 million shares for $944 million in the quarter to complete a 60-million share buyback plan the company announced in May 2013.
Year-to-date, the company has bought back 17.7 million shares for $2.9 billion and $4.6 billion remains on the company’s share repurchase authorizations as of Sept. 30.
Northrop reported 187.9 million outstanding shares for the 2015 third quarter compared to 209.2 million shares in the same period last year.
Total backlog sits at $35.89 billion as of Sept. 30 with $21.79 billion funded and the remaining $14.1 billion from unexercised contract options and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity vehicles.
The company booked $15.5 billion in new awards between January and September.
Revenue climbed 0.8 percent year-over-year in Northrop’s aerospace systems segment, electronic systems was up 2 percent, information systems fell 2.6 percent and technical services rose 0.6 percent.
Northrop shares have risen 22.53 percent from the year’s start and are up 38.08 percent over 12 months.
As of 7:18 a.m. Eastern time, Northrop’s stock jumped 5.92Â percent to $191.30 in extended hours trading on higher volume after the Air Force bomber contract announcement.
