Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. KTOS, with a strong backlog, rising earnings estimates and low debt, offers a great investment opportunity in the Zacks Aerospace Defense Equipment industry.

Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company a strong investment pick at the moment.

KTOS’ Growth Projections & Surprise History
 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KTOS’ 2025 earnings per share (EPS) has increased 1.8% to 58 cents in the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2024 EPS implies a 9.5% year-over-year improvement.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Kratos Defense’s total revenues for 2024 stands at $1.14 billion, which indicates year-over-year growth of 10.1%.

The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 70.63% in the last four quarters.

Debt Position of KTOS
 

Currently, Kratos Defense’s total debt to capital is 11.65%, better than the industry’s average of 52.13%.

Kratos Defense’s times interest earned ratio (TIE) at the end of the third quarter of 2024 was 4.9. The company’s strong TIE ratio indicates that it will be able to meet its interest payment obligations in the near term without any problems.

KTOS’ Liquidity
 

The company’s current ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2024 was 3.22, higher than the industry’s average of 1.41. The ratio, being greater than one, indicates Kratos Defense’s ability to meet its future short-term liabilities without difficulties.

KTOS’ Rising Backlog
 

KTOS’ total backlog as of Sept. 29, 2024 increased a solid 11.1% to $1.29 billion from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure. Such solid backlog growth indicates strong revenue growth prospects for the company in the coming quarters. Kratos expects to recognize approximately 19% of the total backlog as revenues in 2024, an additional 50% in 2025 and the balance thereafter.

KTOS Stock Price Movement
 

In the past three months, KTOS shares have rallied 14.2% compared with the industry’s growth of 8.6%.

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Other Stocks to Consider
 

A few other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are Curtiss-Wright Corp. CW, HEICO Corporation HEI and BAE Systems BAESY, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Curtiss-Wright delivered an average earnings surprise of 12.78% in the last four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CW’s total revenues for 2024 stands at $3.08 billion, which indicates growth of 8.1% from the 2023 reported figure.

HEICO’s long-term earnings growth rate is 19.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HEI’s total revenues for fiscal 2024 stands at $3.89 billion, which suggests year-over-year growth of 31.1%.

BAE Systems’ long-term earnings growth rate is 12.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BAESY’s 2024 sales is pegged at $36.22 billion, which implies an improvement of 37.7% from the 2023 reported sales figure.

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