Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's biggest weapons supplier, reported a better-than-expected 14.8 per cent rise in per-share earnings on Tuesday but warned that full-year revenue was likely to come in at the low end of earlier guidance due to US Budget cuts.
Helped by a lower tax expenses, first-quarter net profit rose to $761 million, or $2.33 a share, from $668 million, or $2.03 a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped two per cent to $11.1 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S had expected earnings of $2.04 per share on revenue of $10.3 billion. Sales in its biggest division, aeronautics, dropped 14 per cent, mainly due to lower deliveries of F-16 fighter jets, while sales in the missiles and fire control division rose 13 per cent.
Lockheed said revenue for the full year would be at the low end of the $44.5 billion to $46 billion range forecast in January, with the additional budget cuts seen reducing net sales by about $825 million.
Lockheed is the first of the big US weapons makers to report first-quarter earnings.
