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Defense sales stood out in the quarter.
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Defense and aerospace giant Raytheon Technologies crushed Wall Street’s profit expectations, but the stock fell anyway on Tuesday morning. The commercial aerospace sector is not improving fast enough for investors.
Raytheon (ticker: RTX) earned 40 cents a share of $ 14.3 billion in sales. Analysts forecast 13 cents in earnings per share of $ 13.5 billion in sales.
It is a great profit hit. Still, stocks fell 1.9% as the S&P 500 fell 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%. The problems of the aerospace industry could not overcome exceptional cost control.
Raytheon’s Collins Aerospace division sales fell 36% year-over-year. Engine producer Pratt & Whitney’s sales fell 32% year-over-year. Management said in the company’s earnings conference call that Pratt’s aftermarket sales would drop 50% year-over-year in the second half of the year. Not good.
To compensate for the loss in demand, the company aims to cut costs by $ 2 billion for all of 2020, an impressive amount.
“While [Raytheon] expects progress in cost savings and cash preservation, and defense must remain strong, there remains the risk of downward demand pressures in the aerospace sector, especially in the high-margin secondary market, “wrote the Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard in a research report Tuesday after the earnings There is not enough improvement in the aerospace industry for investors to be comfortable with stocks.
Defense sales stood out in the quarter. Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau noted that military sales at both Collins and Pratt grew in the second quarter. The stability of the defense sector is one of the reasons that it qualifies for a purchase of Raytheon Tech. Windau does not have a target price for the shares. Stallard also rates the Buy action. Its target price is $ 77 per share.
Wall Street generally likes Raytheon’s stock. Almost 80% of the analysts who cover the company’s rate share the equivalent of Buy. The average purchase rating ratio for stocks in the Dow is approximately 55%.
Analyst support hasn’t helped much in 2020. To date, Raytheon’s shares are down 32%, worse than comparable S&P 500 returns. Still better than average 40% decline in stocks. from aerospace providers. Barron’s Clues The aerospace sector has been one of the industries most affected during the pandemic. Commercial air traffic in the United States, for example, fell approximately 80% year-over-year in June.
Don’t forget comparisons to Raytheon’s results in 2019 are difficult because United Technologies’ legacy merged with Raytheon’s legacy and separated from two industrial companies, Otis (OTIS) and Carrier (CARR).
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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