Northrop Grumman Slips To Loss In Q4; Sees Sales And Earnings Growth In FY24

(RTTNews) - Aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) Thursday reported a loss in its fourth quarter, compared to prior year's profit, reflecting significant charges, despite higher sales.

Further, the company introduced strong 2024 sales and margin guidance inline with prior outlook, and also reaffirmed 2024 and 2025 free cash flow outlook and projects solid growth in 2026

Kathy Warden, chair, chief executive officer and president, said, "With sustained global demand for our products, our 2024 guidance reflects continued strong sales and earnings growth. In addition, we're reaffirming our cash flow outlook for 2024 and 2025, with free cash flow expected to grow at a greater than 15 percent CAGR through 2026. Northrop Grumman's solid performance, record backlog and differentiated portfolio support our outlook for robust cash generation and our plans to return a significant amount of capital to shareholders."

In its fourth quarter, net loss was $535 million or $3.54 per share, compared to last year's profit of $2.08 billion or $13.46 per share.

The latest results included charge on the B-21 program of $1.17 billion or $7.72 per share and a mark-to-market pension and OPB expense of $316 million or $2.09 per share.

Total sales increased 6 percent to $10.64 billion from last year's $10.03 billion in the prior year.

Analysts on average expected the company to report earnings of $5.80 per share on sales of $10.44 billion, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

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