Aerospace and Defense Stocks Take Flight After Strong Earnings

Core Viewpoint - The aerospace and defense industry has shown unexpected strong performance in Q1 2025, leading to upgrades from Wall Street analysts despite tariff uncertainties affecting manufacturing-heavy stocks [1][2]. Group 1: Boeing - Boeing reported better-than-expected Q1 results, with an adjusted loss per share of -$0.49, surpassing the consensus estimate of -$1.30 [3][4]. - Revenues increased by 18% after four consecutive quarters of negative growth, and commercial plane deliveries grew by 57% year-over-year [4]. - Analysts raised their price targets on Boeing by an average of 8% following the earnings release [4][5]. Group 2: Lockheed Martin - Lockheed Martin exceeded consensus estimates with an EPS of $7.28 and sales growth of over 4% in Q1 [7]. - The company has a substantial backlog of $173 billion, which is 2.4 times its total sales for 2024 [7]. - Analysts have raised their price targets, indicating an average upside of nearly 13% for Lockheed Martin shares [10]. Group 3: GE Aerospace - GE Aerospace surpassed estimates on both EPS and sales, with revenue rising by 11% and an adjusted operating margin increase of 460 basis points [11]. - The company has a backlog of $140 billion, over three times its revenue for 2024 [11]. - Analysts at Bank of America praised GE Aerospace's proactive tariff mitigation strategy, with an average upside of nearly 11% in share price following the earnings release [12].