Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) generated $17.2 billion in net sales during the first quarter of 2024, up 14 percent from the prior-year period’s $15.1 billion, and reported $1.5 billion in Q1 net earnings, or $6.39 per share.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace and defense contractor said Tuesday it returned $1.8 billion in cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
The company recorded $1.6 billion in cash from operations and free cash flow of $1.3 billion in both the first quarters of 2023 and 2024.
Jim Taiclet, chairman, president, and CEO of Lockheed, said the company’s strong Q1 results demonstrate its performance in designing, building and delivering 21st Century Security capabilities in support of integrated deterrence.
“Our $159 billion backlog includes several large National Security Space awards in the quarter and attests to the breadth of our portfolio, depth of our technical expertise, and understanding of our customers’ needs. These capabilities uniquely position us to lead the realization of joint all domain operations, including reliable battle management and command and control systems integrated across multiple domains, military services, and allied forces,” noted Taiclet, a two-time Wash100 awardee.
Lockheed’s aeronautics business saw its Q1 net sales increase 9 percent to $6.8 billion and attributed the growth to higher volumes across the F-35 program and the continued production ramp on the F-16 program.
“We remain exceptionally focused on the execution of the F-35 program, working with our customers and suppliers to implement TR-3 capabilities, and are encouraged by the progress towards delivery of the first TR-3 configured aircraft. The innovation and open architecture solutions across our portfolio enable customers worldwide to stay prepared and agile amidst an ever-changing threat environment,” the Lockheed CEO added.
TR-3 stands for Technology Refresh 3, which includes software and hardware upgrades to the F-35 aircraft.
The three other Lockheed business segments reported growth in Q1 2024 net sales. The missiles and fire control business saw its net sales rise 25 percent to $2.9 billion, while the rotary and mission systems segment posted a $4.1 billion in net revenue, up 16 percent from the same period in 2023. The space business logged $3.2 billion in net sales, reflecting a 10 percent increase from the prior-year period.
Taiclet told analysts in an earnings call Tuesday that the Next-Generation Interceptor and Long-Range Discrimination Radar will be “critical elements” in the homeland defense mission.
“And they’re going to be integrated into the broader defense architecture with a battle management system that we call command control battle management and communications or as the military calls it C2BMC,” the Lockheed CEO said of NGI and LRDR.
