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Shares of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) have moved strongly higher in today's action after the defense contractor put up better than expected numbers for its fourth quarter this morning.Going into today's earnings release, analysts had been expecting to see the company show $1.92 per share, but the company came in well above those estimates, with a reported $2.05 a share for its quarter ending December 31.
This morning's good news was slightly balanced by the company's announcement that its upcoming full year 2009 profit was probably going to be lower than it had previously forecast, a result of increasing pension expenses. The market was tough on the company's pension plan in 2008, and drove the plan's value down by 28%. The resulting increase in pension expenses forced Lockheed Martin to lower its full year 2009 profit guidance down to between $7.05 and $7.25 from a previous estimate of between $7.65 and $7.90 per share.
Despite the lowered profit projections, investors have given the stock a nice boost today, and shares have traded up 4.3% to $83.46, and hit an intraday high earlier in the session all the way up at $84.56.
While 2009 could offer some interesting times for the company with President Barack Obama controlling the country, the company did raise its forecast for sales in the upcoming year. Previously, LMT offered sales guidance for the year of between $44.25 billion to $45.25, but lifted that estimate this morning up to a range of $44.70 and $45.70 billion. Some have questioned how big defense contractors are going to hold up this year as Obama looks to defense spending in order to fund his large stimulus plans that are sure to be on the way.
One thing is for sure, the company had a great fourth quarter, with earnings rising by 3% over the same period last year, and it is confident that the market on the whole will rebound and help give a boost to its weakened pension plan in the upcoming year.
For its full year 2008, Lockheed Martin showed earnings of $7.86 a share on $3.22 billion, compared with 2007 earnings of $7.10 per share on $3.03 billion.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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