BAE Systems Sales Expected to Grow After Large Orders For Fighter Jets, Combat Vehicles -- Earnings Preview

Dow Jones
Feb 17

By Cristina Gallardo

 

The U.K. defense and aerospace group BAE Systems is scheduled to report results for 2025 on Wednesday. Here is what you need to know.

 

SALES FORECAST: The London-listed manufacturer--which makes a range of war equipment and also provides cybersecurity services--is expected to report an increase in sales by 8%-10% in 2025, according to a company-compiled consensus, compared with 28.335 billion pounds ($38.62 billion) in 2024.

 

NET INCOME: Analysts expect BAE Systems to report 2.09 billion pounds in 2025, according to a consensus estimate provided by Visible Alpha, up from 1.96 billion pounds in 2024.

 

UNDERLYING EBIT: Underlying earnings before interest and taxes--the group's preferred measure of profitability--are forecast to have increased between 9% and 11% in 2025, according to a company-compiled consensus, compared with 3.015 billion pounds in 2024.

 

WHAT TO WATCH

Shares recently traded at 20.28 pounds, up 63.5% over the past 12 months.

 

-- The market expects no surprises in BAE's full-year results after Chief Executive Charles Woodburn offered reassuring guidance alongside the company's third-quarter earnings report in November, when all metrics for 2025 were confirmed. They had been upgraded last July. UBS analyst Ian Douglas-Pennant said Wednesday's results shouldn't act as a major catalyst.

-- At the end of 2024, BAE Systems' order backlog was 77.8 billion pounds. The company said it had booked orders worth 27.2 billion pounds in the 10 months to October. Major orders announced in the fourth quarter of 2025 include Eurofighter jets for Germany and Turkey, and combat vehicles for Denmark.

-- However, scrutiny will grow in the coming months over BAE's revenue, profit and the strength of its forward order books, Interactive Investor's Richard Hunter said.

-- BAE Systems' Platforms and Services division should report the biggest contribution to the company's growth, driven by combat mission systems as well as Swedish businesses Hagglunds and Bofors, Morgan Stanley analyst Ross Law said. The Maritime business is also expected to post double-digit growth in 2025, he adds. Douglas-Pennant cautions that BAE's control and instrumentation business and its electronic systems unit could face headwinds resulting from changes in priorities in the U.S.

 

Write to Cristina Gallardo at cristina.gallardo@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 17, 2026 08:31 ET (13:31 GMT)

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