Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) reported $10 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022, up 16 percent from $8.6 billion in the prior-year period, and a 3 percent increase in organic sales for the full year ended Dec. 31.
The Falls Church, Virginia-based aerospace and defense contractor said Thursday the sales growth was driven by strong demand for its products, performance of the company’s space and mission systems segments and improving trends in labor availability.
Q4 net awards totaled $9.1 billion, including $3.2 billion for restricted programs, $700 million for the F-35 aircraft and $400 million for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System.
The company’s full-year net awards reached $39.3 billion, while its total backlog was $78.7 billion.
The space systems business logged a 23 percent increase in sales for the fourth quarter to $3.3 billion, while the defense segment recorded a 20 percent rise in Q4 revenue to $1.65 billion. The company’s mission systems unit saw its revenue jump 16 percent to $2.9 billion.
Northrop recorded a 25 percent increase in Q4 transaction-adjusted earnings per share to $7.50 and generated transaction-adjusted free cash flow of $1.6 billion for 2022.
At an earnings call Thursday, Kathy Warden, chairman, CEO and president of Northrop, told investors that the company remains on schedule to conduct its initial flight of the B-21 Raider long-range strike bomber in late 2023.
The U.S. Air Force unveiled the B-21 aircraft in December.
“As the program transitions into low-rate initial production, we are working to address macroeconomic conditions, especially related to inflation, and their impact on material, suppliers and labor,” said Warden, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s 2023 Wash100 list.
“Importantly, I want to highlight that our B-21 unit cost projections remain below the government’s independent cost estimates,” she added.
