Lockheed Martin Stock Slips Even As Aerospace Giant Reportedly Bags $870M Contract: Retail Remains Neutral

Shares of Lockheed Martin Corp ($LMT) were down nearly 3% on Monday morning even as reports emerged of the security and aerospace giant potentially securing $870 million in contract funding from the US Department of Defense for F35 stealth fighter jets, but retail investors remained neutral. 

Some investors may have been responding to a tweet on Sunday by Elon Musk that showed a video of drones flying in fancy geometric formations saying, “Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35,” Barron’s reported.

The contract funding for fighter jets from “Lot 20” was awarded by the United States Department of Defence and includes the purchase of “long-lead materials, components, and associated production support” crucial for staying on target production schedule for the F35 jets, said a report in The Defence Industry Europe.

The F-35 aircraft are used in the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Production-related activities are reportedly spread across various sites, but the majority of the work will be carried out in Fort Worth, Texas, added the report.

Retail sentiment on the stock has remained tepid, remaining ‘neutral’ in over a day, despite the new order from the U.S., and another order from Romania last week.

LMT sentiment meter and message volumes on Nov 25 as of am 9:40 am ET| Source: Stocktwits

On Thursday, Lockheed Martin announced it had received an order from the Government of Romania to procure 32 of its 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft. Romania signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) through a U.S. government Foreign Military Sale, according to a company release.

For its third quarter, Lockheed reported net sales of $17.1 billion, an increase of 1% year-over-year. Its quarterly dividend was hiked by 5% to $3.30 per share.

The company raised its 2024 financial outlook: Earnings per share (EPS) are expected to be around $26.65 while net sales are expected to be around $71.25 billion.

As of the end of its third quarter, its cash from operations stood at $2.4 billion with free cash flows of $2.1 billion.

LMT stock is up 15.6% year-to-date.

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