By Dean Seal

Northrop Grumman is projecting higher sales in 2025 and said most of its segments posted growth in the fourth quarter, though not its space business.

The defense contractor posted a profit of $1.26 billion, compared with a loss of $535 million in the year-ago quarter when the company took a $1.2 billion charge against the new B-21 Raider bomber it was building for the U.S. Air Force.

Earnings were $8.66 a share, handily topping the $6.35 a share consensus estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.

Sales came in at $10.69 billion, about flat with $10.64 billion a year ago and below analyst projections for $10.97 billion, according to FactSet.

The company's aeronautic business logged 11% higher sales at $3.22 billion, its defense systems segment hit a 5% gain to $2.33 billion, and mission systems sales were up 3% at $3.14 billion.

The gains were largely undercut by the contractor's space systems business, where sales dropped 13% to $2.71 billion. The segment's sales took a $231 million hit from the wind-down of its work on restricted space and Next Generation Interceptor projects.

For the year ahead, Northrop Grumman is guiding for earnings of $27.85 to $28.25 a share, a little below the $28.34 a share it hit in 2024. But sales are expected to rise to between $42 billion and $42.5 billion from a total of $41.03 billion last year.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet are targeting $28.12 a share for 2025 on $42.77 billion in revenue.

Shares rose about half a percentage point to $485 in premarket trading.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2025 07:12 ET (12:12 GMT)

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