A report by financial services company Raymond James (NYSE: RJF) shows that there were 76 mergers and acquisitions in the defense and space industry during the first quarter of 2024, a 55 percent increase from the same period the previous year and a 31 percent rise from the previous quarter.
Defense and Space M&A Activity
According to the company’s quarterly market report, most M&A deals in the defense and space market focused on communications technologies and private equity firms completed platform and add-on investments in Q1 2024.
Among the major M&A transactions cited in the report are the acquisition of Satelles by Iridium Communications (Nasdaq: IRDM), the move of investment firm Kanders & Co. to buy certain antenna and test equipment businesses of L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and BlueHalo’s purchase of Eqlipse Technologies.
Defense and Space Contract Awards
The Raymond James report listed major defense and space contracts awarded to GovCon companies from January to April, including a $13.1 billion contract awarded by the U.S. Air Force to Sierra Nevada Corp. to build the Survivable Airborne Operations Center Weapon System aircraft and a $12 billion recompete contract that Guidehouse secured from the Air Force to provide systems engineering and integration support for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Other contracts mentioned are the $3.4 billion P-8A Poseidon aircraft production contract that Boeing (NYSE: BA) received from the U.S. Navy and $2.5 billion in prototype agreements awarded by the Space Development Agency to L3Harris, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Sierra Space to build satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer.
Market Performance of Public Defense and Space Companies
The quarterly update also highlighted the stock and financial performances of publicly traded defense and space companies in the technology, solutions and multiplatform contracting markets.
Some of those companies are Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), CACI International (NYSE: CACI), ICF (Nasdaq: ICFI), Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Parsons (NYSE: PSN) and Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC).
The quarterly report was released by Raymond James’ defense and government services group, where 2024 Wash100 awardee Sam Maness serves as a managing director.
