GovCon Wire Your Direct Source for Government Contracting News 
L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) — one of 30 companies listed on Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index — has reported a third quarter loss of $3.74 per share on a writedown in its national security solutions segment, which provides cybersecurity services to government agencies.
L-3 said the company recorded the goodwill impairment charge of $491 million, or $5.79 per share, on lower prospects in new awards from commercial and international customers.
The New York City-based defense contractor said in July it would pursue a spinoff or sale of the NSS segment, which generated $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2014 sales.
CEO Michael Strianese told investors in a subsequent call held Thursday the company continues to look at the separation of NSS by the end of this year as stated in the company’s second quarter earnings conference with analysts.
Third quarter net loss totaled $299 million with the charge, compared to a profit of $154 million — or $1.78 per share — reported for the same period last year.
Without the writedown, L-3 reported $2.09 in earnings per share and $2.82 billion in revenue compared to the Wall Street consensus forecasts of $1.81 per share and $2.91 billion respectively.
NSS segment revenue declined 13.72 percent-year-over-year to $264 million, aerospace systems segment sales climbed 3.88 percent year-over-year to $1.07 billion and communication systems climbed 2.43 percent to $505 million.
The company also adjusted its 2015 guidance to between $6.80 and $6.90 earnings per share from the prior $6.70-$7.00 range and revenue to a range of $11.4 billion-to-$11.5 billion from the prior $11.45 billion-to-$11.65 billion outlook.
Funded backlog as of Sept. 25 was $9.4 billion compared to $10.1 billion in the same period last year.
L-3 shares, which were halted in pre-market trading before the open, are relatively unchanged from the year’s start and are up 7.56 percent over 12 months.
