Defense contractor beats quarterly earnings expectations and lifts its outlook, as new orders boost backlog to a record $230 billion

Lockheed Martin's stock jumps as a ramp-up in missile production helped lead to an earnings beat and raise.

Shares of Lockheed Martin leapt in early Thursday trading, after the defense contractor reported a big jump in second-quarter profit and raised its full-year outlook, and said increased customer demand was just part of the reason for the strong results.

The company's (LMT) push to ramp up production of missile and defense systems came at the right time, amid increasing hostilities in the Middle East, and as European countries boosted military spending with Russia's war on neighboring Ukraine at a potentially pivotal stage.

"Over the quarter, we took a major step forward in transforming munitions production," which helped lead to the signing of $35 billion contract with the Missile Defense Agency for its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile-interceptor system, said Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet.

The stock rallied 6.1% in premarket trading, which put it on track for the best one-day post-earnings-report gain since second-quarter results were reported in 2024.

Net earnings for the quarter through June 28 soared 437% from a year before to $1.84 billion, with earnings per share jumping to $7.94 from $1.46 to beat the average analyst EPS estimate compiled by FactSet of $7.19.

Sales surged 10.5% to $20.06 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $19.34 billion. And with $65 billion in new orders, the order backlog grew to a record $230 billion.

Looking ahead, the company raised its 2026 guidance ranges for EPS to $29.95 to $30.65 from $29.35 to $30.25 and for sales to $79.75 billion to $81.75 billion from $77.5 billion to $80 billion.

Among the company's business segments, second-quarter sales for aeronautics, which includes the F-35 fighter jet, rose 9.3% to $8.11 billion, besting the FactSet consensus of $7.61 billion.

Missiles and fire-control sales climbed 19.5% to $4.1 billion, to beat expectations of $4.03 billion, with higher sales of air- and missile-defense programs cited.

Rotary and mission-systems sales were up 9% to $4.35 billion, and space sales grew 5.7% to $3.5 billion.

Lockheed Martin shares, and those of other defense contractors, have actually struggled since the start of the Iran war, due to disruptions in shipping products to Middle East customers. Although the stock closed at a record high on March 2, the first day of trading after that war started, it has lost 21.8% since the end of February.

The stock was still up 6.4% in 2026, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 9.6%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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July 23, 2026 07:56 ET (11:56 GMT)

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