Excluding the charge, Northrop earned $524 million, or $1.57 per share. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 4% to $9.15 billion, led by stronger sales in electronics. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $1.55 per share on revenue of $8.90 billion.

For 2009, Northrop forecast earnings in a range of $4.50 to $4.75 per share on revenue of $34.5 billion. Analysts, on average, expect a profit of $5.20 per share on revenue of $33.57 billion.

Shares of Northrop Grumman were up 2.4% in mid-day trading, but they are about 41% lower than a year ago. Analysts, on average, recommend buying NOC.

Houston-based Marathon said it lost $41 million, or $0.06 per share, in the quarter due to a $1.4 billion non-cash charge related to its oil sands mining segment, and also because of lower crude prices. That compared with earnings of $688 million, or 94 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Adjusted for one-time items, earnings for the period that ended in December came to $1.03 billion, or $1.44 per share. Revenue fell 19% from a year ago to $14.78 billion. Analysts had forecast earnings of $0.90 per share on revenue of $13.32 billion.

For the full year 2008, Marathon reported net income of $3.52 billion, or $4.95 a share, down from the profit of $3.96 billion, or $5.69 a share, in 2007. Revenue rose 17% to $78.6 billion in 2008.

Marathon shares had fallen 0.5% in mid day trading, and were about 25% lower than a year ago. MRO also has a consensus recommendation to buy.

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