** Lockheed Martin's LMT.N shares up, holding earlier gains, after U.S. State Department approved potential $5.58 billion sale of F-16 aircraft to Philippines
** Principal contractor for sale will be LMT, per Pentagon. LMT shares last up 0.4%
** Also, Trump administration is planning an executive order that would ease rules governing exports of military equipment, and could announce it as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday, four sources familiar with the discussions said
** An executive order could increase sales for big U.S. defense contractors such as LMT, RTX Corp RTX.N and Boeing Co BA.N
** LMT recently traded at 16x expected earnings, aligning with 5-year avg. forward PE of 16, per LSEG data
(Reporting by Noel Randewich)
((noel.randewich@thomsonreuters.com))
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