Harris Corp. in play?

Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS) has had a nice run. Over the past five years, the stock price has gone from $14 to $59.

The company is a key player in communications and IT – with about 7,000 engineers and scientists. With the spread of terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company's skill sets are certainly "must haves."

But, trends do come to an end (especially in the defense industry). That may be the thinking with the folks at Harris. That is, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription only), it looks like the company is shopping itself for a potential sale.

I doubt they will have much trouble finding suitors. After all, the sector is full of major operators looking to bulk things up, such as Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), BAE Systems PLC (NASDAQ: BAESY) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC).

Moreover, the fundamentals still are intact at Harris. According to its Q1 report, revenues increased from $1.07 billion to $1.33 billion. Net income came to $108 million, or $0.78 per share.

So far in today's trading, the shares of Harris are up about 9%.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.