Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) stock rose 1.09% to open the week on February 11. Shares of Raytheon have climbed 14.7% in 2019 so far. The company released its fourth-quarter and full-year results on January 31.
It was an unsurprisingly strong year for Raytheon. U.S. defence contractors have been gorging on a new surge in spending after the Trump administration bumped up the defence budget to $716 billion in 2018.
Raytheon reported solid bookings of $8.4 billion in the fourth quarter and $32.2 billion for the full-year. Net sales rose 8.5% year-over-year to $7.4 billion in Q4 and were up 6.7% from 2017 to $27.1 billion. Raytheon also achieved a record for operating cash flow reporting $3.4 billion at year’s end. The backlog at the end of 2018 reached $42.4 billion, which was up 11% compared to the end of 2017.
In its 2019 guidance Raytheon projected earnings per share to hit between $11.40 and $11.60 compared to $10.15 in 2018. It also forecast revenues between $28.6 billion and $29.1 billion.
Details of the next budget are expected to be released in mid-March. President Trump hinted at a $750 billion budget in December, but current projections put the defence budget at $733 billion. This still represents a significant increase.
Raytheon looks poised for another record-breaking year in 2019, but its stock is a pricey right now. As of close on February 11, the stock had an RSI of 67, which is just outside of overbought territory.
