MW Lockheed Martin's earnings weighed down by charges on classified programs

By Ciara Linnane

Stock dips nearly 4% premarket as profit guidance is also soft

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s stock fell 3.7% early Tuesday, after the aerospace and defense company's fourth-quarter earnings fell short of estimates as it booked losses on classified programs.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed $(LMT)$ had per-share earnings of $2.22 in the quarter, down from $7.58 a share, in the year-earlier period, weighed down by $1.7 billion of losses for classified programs at its aeronautics and missiles, and fire control business segments. That was equal to a $5.45 hit to earnings.

Sales fell to $18.6 billion from $18.9 billion.

The FactSet consensus was for EPS of $6.62 and sales of $18.8 billion.

The company ended the year with a record backlog of $176 billion.

Chief Executive Jim Taiclet said the company invested more than $3 billion in 2024 in advancing the nation's security via R&D and capital investments in the latest digital and manufacturing technologies.

"Lockheed Martin is committed to developing and delivering the best military capabilities in the world, better than any potential adversary can hope to have," Taiclet said in prepared remarks.

"We are fully committed to developing a combined air power solution set that integrates new 6th generation with current 5th generation and 4th generation aircraft using wingman drones, AI, advanced sensors in space and in the air, and 5G-level, cyber-hardened data links," he added.

The company is now expecting 2025 EPS to range from about $27.00 to $27.30 on sales of about $73.750 to $74.750. The FactSet consensus is for EPS of $27.88 and for sales of $74.112 billion.

By segment, sales in the aeronautics business rose to $8.009 billion in the quarter from $7.613 billion a year ago. Sales of missiles and fire control rose to $3.412 billion from $3.171 billion.

Sales at rotary and mission systems fell to $4.261 billion from $4.711 billion, while space sales were down to $2.940 billion from $3.379 billion.

The stock has gained 17% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 22.9%.

-Ciara Linnane

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January 28, 2025 08:22 ET (13:22 GMT)

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