A report by consulting firm McAleese & Associates says Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) saw its revenue rise 12 percent to $2.1B in the third quarter of 2018 with a year-to-date sales increase of 10 percent.
HII posted $290M in Q3 total corporate profit, reflecting a 20 percent increase from the same period last year associated with a $23M hike in FAS/CAS pension income.
The operating margin of HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division was 11.8 percent driven by the delivery of the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter 7 vessel, Jim McAleese, founder and principal at McAleese & Associates, wrote in the report.
HII reported a 13 percent rise in Q3 sector operating profit at $217M associated with a one-time, $43M-plus favorable change in workers’ compensation expense at Newport News Shipbuilding division.
According to the report, HII CEO Mike Petters is “conservatively taking no additional profit-booking/risk-retirements on the fixed-price-incentive-firm CVN-79 Kennedy aircraft carrier†until the vessel is officially launched in late 2019.
McAleese noted that the shipbuilder is positioning itself for “strong free cash flow generation by 2020†to support dividend increases and share repurchases.
HII booked approximately $2.8B in Q3 contracts, a figure that brings the company’s total backlog to about $22B as of the end of September.
The company closed the quarter with diluted earnings per share of $5.29 and cash and cash equivalents of $68M.
