Oct 30 (Reuters) - U.S. military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls HII.N posted third-quarter profit above Wall Street expectations on Thursday, amid robust demand for aircraft carriers and submarines, sending its shares up 6.9% in premarket trading.
The company also raised the lower end of its full-year revenue forecast to $9 billion for its shipbuilding segment and $3 billion for its mission technologies unit.
It had previously projected a revenue range of $8.9 billion to $9.1 billion for shipbuilding and $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion for mission technologies.
Huntington, a prime contractor for the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered Columbia-class submarines, has seen booming demand in the face of escalating geopolitical tensions.
The company could also see a boost from U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to revitalize American shipbuilding in a bid to deter China.
"We have continued to see early signs that targeted investments are helping to strengthen our workforce and build a more robust maritime supply chain in support of higher shipbuilding throughput," CEO Chris Kastner said.
Huntington's third-quarter profit came in at 3.82 per share, above analysts' average estimate of $3.36, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Its sales and services revenue was $3.19 billion in the quarter, up 16.1% but below expectations of $2.96 billion.
(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti and Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
((UtkarshUmesh.Shetti@thomsonreuters.com;))