Despite missing Wall Street’s top and bottom-line third-quarter estimates and delivering a weak outlook this week, Northrop Grumman Corp.’s stock continues to live up to its ‘teflon’ reputation.
As expected, Northrop Grumman’s NOC, +2.35% stock shook off Thursday’s miss and was up 2.9% on Friday, outpacing the S&P 500 index’s SPX, +2.46% 2% gain.
Strong growth in Northrop Grumman’s space business offset third-quarter shortfalls in its aeronautics- and defense-systems divisions. The defense company also said that its third-quarter sales reflect improving trends in labor availability, partially offset by supply-chain delays. In a letter to investors L3Harris Technologies CEO Christopher Kubasik said guidance was impacted by factors including “the timing of a Mideast aircraft missionization program” and supply disruptions.
On Friday Raymond James downgraded L3Harris Technologies to market perform from outperform, citing the stock’s recent outperformance, and factors affecting the company’s sales and margin performance.