Lockheed Martin (LMT)

[winston]

not vested

The 10 Best Stocks to Buy for 2017: Lockheed Martin (LMT)

Source: Praveer Sharma

Speaking of the impact Trump’s policies may have on the economy and certain sectors in particular, put defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) on your list of the best stocks to buy for a strong 2017.

The President-elect has already made it clear he intends to rebuild the United States’ military prowess. Lockheed Martin is in a prime position to make that happen.

After all, LMT makes the F-35 fighter jet, electronic warfare hardware, unmanned vehicles and more. These are the kinds of equipment that win modern wars (and modern non-wars).

Yes, the F-35’s future is actually a bit in question with Trump at the helm. But the fighter plane isn’t a make-or-break matter for the company.

Services, spare parts, training equipment and logistics mean Lockheed’s revenue-bearing product base is very diverse, and translates into significant opportunity.

For example, while demand for a handful of F-35s may be pared, the company is looking to modify the Korean-made T-50 to meet the call for 350 new jet training craft.

Source: Investor Place

[winston]

not vested

Lockheed Martin (LMT) Beats on Q4 Earnings, Backlog Rises

The Pentagon’s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT, reported fourth-quarter 2016 earnings from continuing operations of $3.25 per share, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.04 by 6.9%.

Earnings also increased 23.6% from the year-ago level, courtesy of strong revenue and operating margin growth.

Lockheed Martin ended 2016 (on Dec 31, 2016) with $96.2 billion in backlog, up 3.6% from $94.8 billion at 2015-end.

Aeronautics: Sales increased 23% year over year to $5.4 billion, mainly on production contracts of F-35, F-16, C-5 as well as C-130 models of aircraft and increased sustainment activities during the quarter.

Missiles and Fire Control: Quarterly sales dropped 11% year over year to $1.8 billion due to lower volume in certain fire control programs as well as air and missile defense programs.

Rotary and Mission Systems: Quarterly sales of $3.8 billion increased 37% from the prior-year quarter on higher revenues from Sikorsky.

Space Systems: Sales increased 17% year over year to about $2.8 billion in the fourth quarter, driven by sales improvement owing to the company’s increased interest in Atomic Weapons Establishment Venture as well as that from commercial space transportation programs.

Cash and cash equivalents were $1.84 billion at the end of 2016, compared with $1.09 billion at 2015-end.

Long-term debt was $14.282 billion compared to the 2015-end level of $14.305 billion.

During 2016, the company repurchased 8.9 million shares for $2.1 billion compared with the buyback of 15.2 million shares for $3.1 billion a year ago.

Guidance

For 2017, Lockheed Martin expects to generate revenues in the range of $49.4–$50.6 billion. On the bottom-line front, the company expects its earnings per share to be in the range of $12.25–$12.55 during 2017.

The company expects cash from operations to remain more than $5.7 billion for the year.

Source: Zacks Equity Research

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lockheed- ... 04391.html

[winston]

not vested

Lockheed, Pentagon announce $8.5 billion F-35 order

By Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) announced on Friday an agreement worth about $8.5 billion for 90 F-35 jets, the lowest price to date for the Pentagon's most expensive program.

The deal for the tenth lot of the stealthy fighter aircraft brings the price per jet to below $95 million for the first time, compared to $102 million in the previous batch, a savings of $728 million.

This is more than the $600 million that U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Monday he had been able to shave off from the F-35 program, which he had described as "out of control" in December.

Lockheed Martin said in a statement that "President Trump's personal involvement in the F-35 program accelerated the negotiations and sharpened our focus on driving down the price."

The price per jet has been steadily declining as production ramps up, and defense analysts have said the discount hailed by Trump was in line with what had been flagged by Lockheed and Pentagon officials for months.

"The increase in the number of aircraft in this agreement enables us to reduce costs by taking advantage of economies of scale and production efficiencies," Lockheed said.

Lockheed, the prime contractor, and its partners including Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), United Technologies Corp's (UTX.N) Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems Plc (BAES.L), have been working on building a more cost-effective supply chain to fuel the production line in Fort Worth, Texas.

Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who runs the F-35 program for the Pentagon, said on Dec. 19 the cost per plane should decrease about "6 to 7 percent" for the latest contract.

Friday's announcement said the cost of the F-35 A conventional takeoff and landing version of the jet had dropped 7.3 percent since the previous order.

Lockheed and its main partners have been developing and building F-35s for the U.S. military and 10 allies.

The F-35 comes in three configurations, the A-model for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. allies; a F-35 B-model which can handle short takeoffs and vertical landings for the Marine Corps and the British navy; and carrier-variant F-35C jets for the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Defense Department expects to spend $391 billion in the coming decades to develop and buy 2,443 of the supersonic warplanes.

Source: Reuters

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lockheed- ... 02631.html

[winston]

vested

Lockheed Martin Corporation is a global security and aerospace company.

The Company is engaged in the research, design, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

It operates in five segments: Aeronautics; Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS); Missiles and Fire Control (MFC); Mission Systems and Training (MST), and Space Systems.

Its Aeronautics segment is engaged in the development, manufacture, support and upgrade of advanced military aircraft.

The IS&GS provides network-enabled situational awareness and integrates global systems to help its customers gather, analyze and securely distribute critical data.

Its MFC segment provides air and missile defense systems, and logistics services.

Its MST segment provides manufacture, service and support for various military and civil helicopters.

Its Space Systems segment is engaged in the design, engineering and production of satellites.

[winston]

Lockheed Martin backs UK cyber-training initiative

The British arm of U.S. defense major Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) said on Friday it would back a UK government initiative to train students in cyber security to combat a growing skills gap in the area.

Through the UK government's CyberFirst initiative, Lockheed Martin will sponsor a number of students across a three-year period and provide them with work placements during their studies.

"There's an emerging cyber skills gap and it's vital that this gap is addressed," said Peter Ruddock, chief executive of Lockheed Martin UK.

"Supporting CyberFirst will become an integral part of our work to maintain Britain's cyber defenses ..."

Launched in May 2016, CyberFirst is a work-study program in online security targeted at students who are about to start university or are in their first year and run by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Earlier on Friday, a parliamentary report said the British government is taking too long to consolidate co-ordinate an "alphabet soup" of agencies tasked with information protection.

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brita ... r%20Update

[winston]

vested

Next Generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System Successfully Engages Medium Range Ballistic Missile Target

The central component of the Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis BMD Combat System is the SPY-1 radar; the most widely-fielded naval phased array radar in the world.

The company's experience spans missile design and production, hit-to-kill capabilities, infrared seekers, command and control/battle management, and communications, precision pointing and tracking optics, radar and signal processing, as well as threat-representative targets for missile defense tests.

Source: PR Newswire

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/next-gene ... 00629.html

[winston]

vested

Stocks That Will Live and Die by Trump: Lockheed Martin (LMT)

by Praveer Sharma

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) already has seen the potential impact of Donald Trump’s words.

A single tweet from Trump in December sent shares down 2%. The President criticized cost overruns from LMT’s F-35, and said he had asked rival Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) to “price-out” a comparable F-18.

Lockheed Martin wound up reducing the price by about 8% — a total of roughly three-quarters of a billion dollars. And it seems to leave LMT in a dangerous place.

A negotiator like Trump generally doesn’t stop at just one concession.

The F-35 aside, there’s a question of how President Trump and the GOP plan to treat defense spending. Generally, Republicans boost military expenditures, which benefits BA and LMT. But with plans for infrastructure investments, and a traditional focus on budgets, something has to give.

LMT shareholders should hope that “something” is somewhere else in the budget.

Source: Investor Place

[winston]

vested

Lockheed says U.S. may take 'fresh look' at its India F-16 plan

By Sanjeev Miglani and Mike Stone | NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON

U.S. defence firm Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) wants to push ahead with plans to move production of its F-16 combat jets to India, but understands President Donald Trump's administration may want to take a "fresh look" at the proposal.

With no more orders for the F-16 from the Pentagon, Lockheed plans to use its Fort Worth, Texas plant instead to produce the fifth generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that the United States Air Force is transitioning to.

Lockheed would switch F-16 production to India, as long as the Indian government agrees to order hundreds of the planes that its air force desperately needs.

India is expected to spend $250 billion on defence modernisation over the next decade, analysts say, and there is concern that a veto on making the F-16 in India would not only hit Lockheed, but also threaten other military contracts to come up in India for Boeing (BA.N), Northrop (NOC.N) and Raytheon (RTN.N).

One argument to be made was that moving to India would preserve some component production in the United States. "Twenty-five percent of something is better than zero percent of nothing," the person said.

The Indian air force alone needs 200-250 fighters over the next 10 years, its former chief Arup Raha said before he left office in December.

Defence ties between India and the United States have grown rapidly, with U.S. arms sales of more than $4 billion in 2012-15, mostly under government-to-government foreign military sales, upstaging long-term supplier Russia and even Israel

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-airsh ... the%20Bell

[winston]

vested

Lockheed Martin wins $541 mln U.S. defense contract -Pentagon

WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp is being awarded a $541 million modification to a previously awarded U.S. defense contract for submarine-launched Trident II missiles and deployed support, the Pentagon said in a statement on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters

[winston]

vested

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT)

Operating in four business segments organized by the nature of the products and services they offer, Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control (MFC), Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) and Space Systems, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is one of the world’s largest defense companies.

Since 2001, the company has awarded investors an annualized return of 13.21%. In 2015, the company acquired Sikorsky Aircraft from United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) for $9 billion, making Lockheed Martin the leader in military helicopter manufacturing.

Source: Investing.com