Lockheed Martin awarded $509.76M Air Force contract modification
Lockheed Martin (LMT) has been awarded a $509.76M modification to a previously awarded contract for Global Positioning System III Follow-On Space Vehicles 21 and 22. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $4.1B. Work will be performed at Littleton, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by November 2031. Fiscal 2025 missile procurement funds in the amount of $55.04M are being obligated at time of award. The Space Systems Command is the contracting activity.
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2 days ago
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Prediction: Lockheed Martin Stock Could Explode as Donald Trump Touts F-55 Fighter Jet and a Bigger F-22
The Pentagon awarded Lockheed archrival Boeing a surprise win in March: a $20 billion F-47 fighter jet contract. Now, President Trump is suggesting Lockheed Martin could get two contracts of its own, to build F-55 and F-22 Super stealth fighters. Whether or not the contracts materialize, relative to its peers, Lockheed Martin stock already looks attractive. 10 stocks we like better than Lockheed Martin › The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) F-22 Raptor stealth fighter is arguably the most expensive fighter jet ever built, costing an estimated $400 billion per unit. That's part of the reason it's no longer being built, by the way. (The F-22 program was canceled more than a decade ago, although the plane remains in service.) Now, President Donald Trump wants to have the Air Force buy a new fighter jet that could cost even more. Two of them, in fact. As Reuters reported earlier this month, the president recently raised the possibility of having Lockheed build a new stealth fighter, based on Lockheed's F-35 stealth fighter but with two engines instead of just one, to be called the F-55. A second idea floated by the president is to let Lockheed restart production of its long-canceled F-22 program in an upgraded form, to be known as the F-22 Super. No price was named for either aircraft, although price is definitely on the president's mind. Speaking at a meeting of business leaders and aerospace executives in Doha, Qatar, Trump explained, "We're going to do an F-55 and -- I think, if we get the right price, we have to get the right price -- that'll be two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35, and then we're going to do the F-22 [Super] ... a very modern version of the F-22 fighter jet." Furthermore, he stated, "We're going to be going with it pretty quickly." Not everyone's on board with the idea. As defense-focused news site quickly pointed out, creating a twin-engine version of the stealthy F-35 may not even be "feasible." On the other hand, the website noted that the Air Force has already agreed to pay RTX (NYSE: RTX) more than $1 billion to upgrade sensors on the F-22 fleet, turning it into what Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet has called a "fifth-generation plus" fighter able to sense and strike targets farther out than currently possible. So Lockheed Martin is likely to like the president's proposals (both of them). The more so seeing as it's been only a couple of months since the Air Force handed Lockheed a rather shocking defeat, when it awarded the $20 billion contract to build a sixth-generation stealth fighter, the F-47, to rival Boeing (NYSE: BA). With only one such sixth-generation warbird so far announced, that loss holds the potential to put Lockheed a generation behind Boeing in its competency building stealthy fighter jets. This could create a whole new dynamic in which Boeing, not Lockheed, has the advantage in winning future fighter jet contracts. But if Lockheed gets to build a "fifth-generation plus" fighter (or two), the technology gap might not loom quite so large, and Lockheed might remain within striking distance of its rival. In fact, that might be the plan. Trump, of course, has a well-known penchant for shaking up chessboards in order to create new and more advantageous negotiating positions (albeit with the unfortunate side effect of sometimes knocking over pieces). That's not easy to do in the defense industry, which, after going through repeated rounds of consolidation after the Cold War, now comprises really just five big "defense primes" capable of executing the Pentagon's biggest defense contracts. Awarding F-47 to Boeing, then perhaps handing F-55 and F-22 Super contracts to Lockheed, could be the president's way of ensuring these aerospace companies remain both solvent, with enough revenue coming in to stay in business, and able to keep competing with each other, such that no one company gets so dominant that it can dictate prices to its primary customer, the U.S. government. If this is the president's plan, it could also help the Pentagon when it comes time to negotiate pricing on a new F/A-XX stealth fighter jet that the Navy wants to buy, and that both Boeing and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) are angling to build. (And if this is the president's plan, it may also give investors a hint at who will win F/A-XX. Should that one go to Northrop, the Pentagon would have three aerospace defense prime contractors, all bidding against each other on future stealth fighter contracts.) Whoever ends up winning these fighter jet contracts, from an investor's perspective, I see one of these three stocks as clearly superior to the others: Lockheed Martin. Lockheed (20 times earnings) costs slightly more than Northrop Grumman (19) when valued on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings, but sports a much better price-to-free-cash-flow valuation, 22 to Northrop's 38, as confirmed by data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. (Unprofitable and cash-burning Boeing doesn't even make it to the starting line in this race.) Lockheed also boasts a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 13%, twice as fast as Northrop. Why, Lockheed even has the best dividend yield of the bunch at 2.8%. Regardless of whether the president's mooted new fighter jets actually materialize as defense contracts for Lockheed, the stock is already the one with the most value to offer investors. Before you buy stock in Lockheed Martin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Lockheed Martin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin and RTX. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: Lockheed Martin Stock Could Explode as Donald Trump Touts F-55 Fighter Jet and a Bigger F-22 was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
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4 days ago
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At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming
Air Force brass criticized United Launch Alliance's launch cadence in recent Congressional testimony. Airbus is cutting costs and growing revenue rapidly at its space business. United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and competes with Airbus and SpaceX. 10 stocks we like better than Airbus SE › "The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year." That was the headline from a House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) performance in space launch last week. As Ars Technica reports, Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, took ULA, a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), to task for causing "delays to the launch of four national security missions." The space company has launched its new Vulcan rocket twice and finally won certification to fly national security missions in March after the Space Force generously overlooked the fact that, during the rocket's October 2024 certification flight, one of its engine nozzles fell off. Yet despite Space Force doing this favor, ULA has failed to get Vulcan ready to launch even once since receiving certification two months ago. Granted, I personally expect ULA to get its problems fixed and resume Vulcan flights shortly. (With Atlas V due for imminent retirement, it kind of has to!) But ULA had better get a move on. Because over on the other side of the ocean, one of ULA's biggest competitors, aerospace and space giant Airbus (OTC: EADSY), is already starting to up its game in space. Airbus' struggles in space are well-known. The company's new Ariane 6 rocket took nearly a decade to develop. By the time it was ready for flight, it ended up costing far more than planned for each launch. Growing pains are far from unknown in the space business, however, and it looks like the European aerospace company is finally finding its footing in space. Revenue at the company's space division, part of Airbus Defense and Space (ADS), fell 18% from 2021 to 2023 before bouncing back 10% in 2024. As 2025 gets underway, it seems to be gaining momentum. According to a new report from Payload Space, space revenue at ADS grew 28% in the first quarter of 2025. Assuming this is correct, it would mean Airbus' space business is growing more than twice as fast as ADS generally, where revenue grew only 11% in Q1. Profitability is likely to improve as well after the company took $2 billion in charges over the past two years and laid off 2,500 workers to reduce its operating costs. Contract wins are rolling in: $157 million to build two synthetic aperture radar defense satellites for Britain; $2.5 billion more to build a pair of large communications satellites for the German military; and a big contract with Eutelsat to build 100 satellites for that company's OneWeb broadband internet satellite constellation. On top of all this, Airbus CEO Guillaume M.J.D Faury made a cryptic comment in the company's post-earnings conference call last month: "We continue ... looking at different scenarios to create scale in the European space business." Payload and others believe this could be a reference to an Airbus plan to merge its satellite business with those of fellow European defense companies Thales and Leonardo to create a European "champion" that could compete with SpaceX and Starlink. Just because Airbus is gunning primarily for SpaceX, though, doesn't mean ULA should feel safe. In rockets, Airbus CEO Faury said it's his "priority" now to "ramp up" Ariane 6 launches at the same time as ULA's own Vulcan rocket program seems stalled. In at least one regard, this would appear to put Airbus in a head-to-head competition with ULA. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), after all, has awarded contracts to both companies to assist it in launching its Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit. Time is of the essence in that effort, with a July 30, 2026, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deadline looming. Whichever space company ramps its rocket launch cadence first may capture a larger share of the Amazon work. Even bigger picture, ULA CEO Tory Bruno has made it a primary objective to diversify ULA's revenue base by having Vulcan split its launches roughly 50-50 between U.S. government and commercial missions. Historically, ULA has been almost exclusively a U.S. government launcher, but this diversification initiative puts ULA in direct competition with Airbus -- at the same time as ULA is already competing with SpaceX, the 800-lb. gorilla in commercial space launches. All things considered, it's a bad time for ULA to be making its current biggest customer, Space Force, mad at it. Investors looking to avoid further Boeing drama might want to take a look at Airbus stock instead. At 29 times trailing earnings, I won't argue Airbus stock is "cheap," necessarily. But with analysts forecasting 24% long-term annual earnings growth and space revenues already growing faster than that, Airbus stock just might be cheap enough to buy as an alternative to Boeing stock. Before you buy stock in Airbus SE, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Airbus SE wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $638,985!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $853,108!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 978% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
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5 days ago
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Amentum Holdings, Inc. (AMTM): A Bull Case Theory
We came across a bullish thesis on Amentum Holdings, Inc. (AMTM) on Cornerstone Value's Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls' thesis on AMTM. Amentum Holdings, Inc. (AMTM)'s share was trading at $21.21 as of 22nd May. AMTM's trailing and forward P/E were 322.56 and 10 respectively according to Yahoo Finance. A close-up of an antenna, its intricate designs a testament to the company's expertise in space infrastructure. Amentum's recent earnings report was largely uneventful, with management maintaining EBITDA, cash flow, and EPS guidance while tightening the guidance range and providing timing details on the divestment of its Rapid Solutions Division. Despite a modestly lower book-to-bill ratio this quarter, the year-to-date figure remains strong. The stock's sharp decline following the results appears driven more by the unwinding of long/short trade positions that had anticipated a beat-and-raise scenario, rather than the fundamentals. The April announcement of the $360 million sale of the Rapid Solutions Division to Lockheed Martin validates Amentum's strategy of divesting non-core, low-growth, or low-margin assets to accelerate deleveraging and reshape its margin profile. This deal is notable for its exceptionally high 36x EBITDA multiple, reflecting Lockheed's strategic valuation of the business despite its modest growth within Amentum. Proceeds from the sale are earmarked for debt reduction, which is important given that debt paydown had been delayed due to prepayment penalties that recently expired. On the operational front, the company faces a one-time $70 million cash outflow in 3Q25 tied to Jacobs net working capital true-up, already reflected in guidance. Additionally, the winding down of Elon Musk's involvement in DOGE, which had previously caused sector volatility, is a positive development for the industry's stability and efficiency reforms—a potential tailwind for Amentum and peers. While this quarter's results did not impress, the strategic moves, including divestitures and deleveraging, alongside reduced market chaos, position Amentum well. The stock remains volatile but offers significant upside as management executes its transformation plan, and the team remains confident enough to have increased their position amid recent volatility. We have previously covered Amentum Holdings, Inc. (AMTM) in March 2025 wherein we summarized a bull thesis by Acid Investments on Substack. The author highlighted Amentum (AMTM) trading near $18 amid defense spending concerns and sector weakness. Since then, Jacobs' full exit has eased overhang risks, boosting sentiment despite some volatility. Management's focus on deleveraging and margin improvement, supported by insider buying, continues to point to strong upside potential. As of May 2025, the stock has risen by 13.18%. Amentum Holdings, Inc. (AMTM) is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 29 hedge fund portfolios held AMTM at the end of the fourth quarter which was 28 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of AMTM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMTM but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
