Shares of Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT climbed 1.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the aerospace and defense systems company reported fourth-quarter profit and sales that rose above Wall Street forecasts, citing a stronger-than-expected finish to the year. Net income fell to $1.91 billion, or $7.40 a share, from $2.05 billion, or $7.47 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as severance charges and investment losses, adjusted earnings per share rose to $7.79 from $7.22 to beat the FactSet consensus of $7.41. Sales grew 7.1% to $18.99 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $18.28 billion, as all of its business segments — Aeronautics, missiles and fire control, rotary and mission systems and space — saw revenue rise above expectations. Free cash flow of $1.2 billion matched expectations. For 2023, the company expects EPS of $26.60 to $26.90, compared with the FactSet consensus of $27.14, and sales of $65.0 billion to $66.0 billion, to surround expectations of $65.8 billion. The stock has slipped 3.5% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 5.9%.
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