-- General Dynamics (GD) increased its full-year earnings outlook after reporting fiscal first-quarter results above Wall Street's estimates, sending the company's shares surging Wednesday.
The aerospace and defense company now projects earnings at $16.45 to $16.55 a share for fiscal 2026, up from its previous guidance range of $16.10 to $16.20, President Danny Deep said on an earnings conference call, according to a FactSet transcript. The current consensus on FactSet is for $16.30.
"Given our strong start, we thought it would be prudent to revise our EPS guidance to reflect our performance thus far," Deep told analysts. "Looking at the year from a quarterly perspective, the first and fourth quarters would represent the high points, favoring the fourth quarter."
EPS climbed to $4.10 for the quarter through April 5 from $3.66 a year earlier, topping the Street's view for $3.68. Revenue improved 10% to $13.48 billion, exceeding the average analyst estimate on FactSet of $12.70 billion.
General Dynamics' shares were up 11% in Wednesday afternoon trade. The stock has increased 2.9% so far this year.
Marine systems business revenue jumped 21% year over year to $4.34 billion in the quarter, while the aerospace division saw an 8.4% gain. Sales in the combat systems and technologies units rose more than 4% each.
Orders amounted to $26.6 billion in the quarter on a companywide basis, while total estimated contract value -- the sum of all backlog components -- was $188.4 billion at the end of the quarter. The company said this includes backlog of $130.8 billion.
However, General Dynamics saw numerous transactions slow down at the end of the quarter as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, Deep told analysts.
"We were having a spectacular quarter from an order standpoint across the board here in the US, as well as the Middle East," Deep said. "As the conflict started to take form, we saw some slowing in order intake in the Middle East."
Last week, Lockheed Martin (LMT) reported first-quarter results that missed the Street's views, while fellow aerospace and defense companies RTX (RTX) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) delivered beats.
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