Solid quarter for Orbital

October 16, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Earnings, Orbital Systems, S&T, Satellites, development program, space 

Orbital reported their third quarter results today. Revenues were up slightly while earnings were down. The company did report strong bookings and their back log is significant at over $2 B. The company saw increased activity in the launch vehicle and advanced space programs. There was a decline in satellites and space services. Orbital provides a variety of space related services to US DoD, Department of Energy and NASA.

See the full press release at MarketWatch.com.

CACI reports

August 18, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: CACI, Department of Defense, Earnings, IT, S&T, SETA, logistics 

In the continuing trend of large defense contractors resulting improved results, CACI had a 13% growth in earnings compared to the equivalent quarter a year ago. Forbes.com reports. CACI is a leading provider of services to the US intelligence community, especially the Defense side. They also provide other services to the US government such as IT and logistics management. Revenue growth was even more impressive, surging over 20% on large intelligence contracts.

For more see the story at Forbes.com.

Northrop Grumman continues strong performance of defense sector

July 29, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Earnings, Northrop Grumman Corp. 

Northrop Grumman continued the trend of the defense sector by reporting strong earnings and profits. See an article here. There had been some trepidation due to the taking back of the KC-45 contract. The company is able to still win this in December, and if it does it will contribute to further strong earnings and profits.

Boeing pays premium for unmanned aircraft partner

Boeing Paying a PremiumBoeing had been working with Insitu, a Washington state company, on unmanned aircraft. Now it just bought the company. See an article here. Based on reports, Boeing payed quite a premium for the company. Insitu had an estimated earnings last year of $80 M and Boeing reportedly payed five times that for the company. Of course all this is based on anonymous reports as the details have not been made public yet. So if you were able to invest money in Insitu you made it back.

Picture by pfala

LMT reports earnings

July 22, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Earnings, Lockheed Martin 

Lockheed Martin continued the string of defense contractors reporting good earnings as the rest of the economy struggles. See a press release here. Lockheed had a 13% increase in profit over the last year with a solid increase in earnings. The company also is starting to sound cautious about the expected downturn if the Democrats win the White House in November. Even if the defense budget is cut dramatically it will take a few years for the effects to be felt within the suppliers.

Earnings and projections remain good for Boeing

April 24, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Earnings, commercial aviation 

Despite losing the KC-45 contract, and as we previously discussed here, Boeing announced solid earnings and projections this week. See the story here. Of course the key to all of this is the 787 Dreamliner. This civil aircraft once it begins deliveries will be the key to Boeing’s performance over the next several years.

Boeing’s role in defense aviation shrinks

This good article in The Seattle Times summarizes how defense aviation is playing a less-and-less role in Boeing’s business. See the article here. It traces how from World War II on Boeing built large transports, tankers and bombers for the US Army Air Corps and Air Force. Now, with the loss of the KC-45 contract, they really are not doing any such business. They obviously rely primarily on their civil aircraft for the bulk of their earnings and profits. Boeing defense business is starting to be more and more in the area of engineering services and total program development and management. They were the Lead System Integrator (LSI) on what used to be called National Missile Defense (NMD) in the Nineties. They have also had similar roles in other major contracts.

KC-45 post on Seeking Alpha

I submitted a small article for Seeking Alpha on the KC-45 as a component of the future profit of either Boeing or EADS. The post reads: “Boeing lost out to EADS for the new airforce tanker contract. The KC-45 will be a version of the Airbus 330 transport aircraft. Boeing had proposed a version of the 767 aircraft. Boeing predicted in their Current Market Outlook 2007 that 28,600 new aircarft will be required to meet the growth in the airline industry by 2026. One would assume Boeing and EADS would get a large portion of these aircraft. The US Air Force will probably order less than 400 aircraft. So the tanker contract will be a small componenet of future production for Boeing or EADS, and a small component of earnings.”