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NEW YORK: Raytheon Co. said on Thursday fourth-quarter profit rose 32 percent, meeting Wall Street's estimates, on strong sales of its air-to-air missiles and electronic battle systems.
The company, which is the No. 5 Pentagon supplier, follows other defense contractors which over the past two weeks all posted higher profits on the back of record U.S. military spending.
Raytheon shares rose nearly 1 percent in morning trade.
The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company said net earnings rose to $365 million, or 81 cents per share, from $276 million, or 61 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding a charge of $55 million to write down the value of its Flight Options jet-sharing unit, and the results of the Raytheon Aircraft Co. unit, which the company is in the process of selling, profit was 65 cents per share.
That met Wall Street's average forecast, according to Reuters Estimates.
Sales rose 12 percent to $5.7 billion, just ahead of the analysts' average forecast of $5.6 billion.
The results benefited from growth in revenue from air-to-air missiles, and the company's work on the U.S. Navy's new DDG 1000 Destroyer, for which Raytheon is integrating all the electronic mission and combat systems.
Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and other rivals posted strong increases in quarterly profit over the past two weeks.
The sector notched one its most profitable years ever as record U.S. military spending was boosted by rising budgets for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Raytheon nudged up its full-year profit forecast by 10 cents to a range of $2.85 to $3 per share, due to lower expected pension costs. Wall Street was expecting $2.95, on average.
It raised its 2007 revenue outlook by $100 million to a range of $21.4 billion to $21.9 billion. The analysts' average forecast was $21.5 billion.
Raytheon shares were up 35 cents at $52.25 on the New York Stock Exchange, not far from the seven-year high of $54.17 hit in December.
