Huntington Ingalls (HII) Q4 Earnings Top, Revenues Up Y/Y

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.’s (NYSE:HII) fourth-quarter 2018 earnings of $4.94 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.45 by 11%. The reported figure also improved a massive 250.4% from $1.41 a year ago on solid revenue growth.

For 2018, the company reported earnings of $19.09 per share, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $18.84 by 1.3%. The bottom line also improved a solid 82.5% from $10.46 registered a year ago.

Total Revenues

Total revenues came in at $2.20 billion exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.06 billion by 6.9%. The top line also rose 10.2% from $2 billion registered in the year-ago quarter. The upside can be attributed to higher sales volume at all the three business divisions of the company.

In 2018, the company generated revenues of $8.18 billion, which once again outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8.03 billion by 1.9% and improved 9.9% from $7.44 billion registered in the prior year.

Segment Details

Newport News Shipbuilding: Revenues totaled $1,278 million at this segment, up 12.2% year over year backed by higher revenues in naval nuclear support services and aircraft carriers. Meanwhile, operating income declined 46.2% to $57 million due to poor performance in the VCS program, primarily Delaware (SSN 791) and Montana (SSN 794), and higher risk retirement on the RCOH program during fourth-quarter 2017.

Ingalls Shipbuilding: Revenues at this segment came in at $699 million, up 9.6% year over year on account of higher revenues in amphibious assault ships and surface combatants. Also, operating income improved 12% to $84 million driven by higher volumes and higher risk retirement for the DDG and NSC programs.

Technical Solutions: Revenues at this segment summed $267 million, up 10.3% year over year. The upside was driven by increased revenues from oil and gas services and mission driven innovative solutions. Operating income totaled $7 million compared with $8 million in the year-ago quarter.

Backlog

Huntington Ingalls received new orders worth $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter. As a result, the company’s total backlog reached $23 billion as of Dec 31, 2018.

Financial Update

Cash and cash equivalents as of Dec 31, 2018, were $240 million, significantly down from $701 million as of Dec 31, 2017.

Long-term debt, as of Dec 31, 2018, was $1,283 million compared with the 2017-end level of $1,279 million.

Cash from operating activities, at the end of 2018, grossed $914 million compared with $814 million at the end of 2017.

Zacks Rank

Huntington Ingalls has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Recent Defense Releases

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings (NYSE:SPR) reported fourth-quarter 2018 adjusted earnings of $1.85 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.78 by 4%.

Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) reported fourth-quarter 2018 earnings per share (EPS) of $2.93 from continuing operations, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.89 by 1.4%. The bottom-line figure also improved a massive 117% from the year-ago quarter’s figure of $1.35.

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) reported adjusted earnings of $5.48 per share for fourth-quarter 2018, which exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.52 by 21.2%. The bottom line reflected an improvement of 8% from $5.07 registered in the year-ago quarter.

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