(Reuters) – Northrop Grumman raised its full-year profit and revenue forecasts on Thursday, as the aerospace and defense major bets on strong weapon demand amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
War in Ukraine and tensions in the Indo-Pacific region have compelled countries in these regions to ramp up their military spending, benefiting U.S. defense contractors.
Northrop’s aeronautic systems business, which houses its new B21 Raider jet program, posted a 2% rise in sales at $2.60 billion in the second quarter.
Sales in its space system business, which makes satellites and payloads, jumped 17% to $3.49 billion, helped by a surge in investment for space exploration projects.
Northrop raised the lower end of its annual profit forecast from $22.25 per share. It now expects 2023 profit to be in the range of $22.45 to $22.85 per share.
The company also raised its annual sales outlook to $38.4 billion and $38.8 billion, compared with its previous projection of $38 billion to $38.4 billion.
Its net earnings came in at $812 million, or $5.34 per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $6.06 a year earlier.
Northrop’s overall sales in the quarter rose 9% to $9.57 billion.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington, DC and Pratyush Thakur in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
