David Fried specializes in finding fundamentally strong companies that are also buying back their shares. A recent buy in his The Buyback Letter is defense contractor, Alliant TechSystems (NYSE: ATK)
He explains, "Alliant is a $3.9 billion advanced weapon and space systems company employing some 16,500 people in 21 states. It supplies aerospace and defense products to the U.S. government, allied nations, and prime contractors in the U.S."
Alliant, he notes, recently received a $62.5 million contract from Orbital Sciences Corporation for the main abort motor of the NASA Orion crew exploration vehicle Launch Abort System (LAS).
In addition, he points out that NASA's Orion will succeed the Space Shuttle in transporting humans to and from the International Space Station, as well as carrying crews to the Moon and eventually Mars. In late June, Fried adds, ATK received a contract worth more than $5 million to make rocket motors for the Sidewinder air-to-air missile system.
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