Stock Update: Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) – Lockheed wins $5.3 billion contract for C-130J aircraft

[Reuters] – The U.S. Department of Defense said on Wednesday that it had already awarded $1 billion in funding for the first 32 aircraft. Lockheed said in October it had reached a verbal agreement with the U.S. Air Force for a five-year contract to build up to 83 C-130J transport planes for the Air Force, Coast Guard and Marine Corps. Lockheed has delivered 60 Super Hercules aircraft to the U.S. Air Force and U.S Marine Corps from 2003-2008 under a previous contract. Read more on this. Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) , with a current market cap of $67.01B, started the session at $219.58. During today’s session, LMT traded between $215.78 to $219.95 with a trailing 52-week range being $181.91 to $227.91. LMT shares are currently priced at 19.35x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 1.96x earnings multiple. And for passive income investors, the company pays shareholders $6.60 per share annually in dividends, yielding 3.03%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 18 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $2.92 per share, which would be $0.09 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.09 sequential decrease. In looking at the bigger picture, the full-year EPS estimate of $11.36 would be a $0.04 worse when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $12.33 Billion. If realized, that would be a 1.60% decrease over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Sterne Agee CRT upgraded LMT from Neutral to Buy (Aug 20, 2015). Previously, JP Morgan Initiated LMT at to Overweight. With the above information in mind, readers should note that the average price target is $228.94, which is 4.26% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:LMT) Similar Articles: Market Update: Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) – Lockheed wins more than $1 billion contract for C-130J aircraft Market Update: Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) – Lockheed Martin wins $784 mln U.S. long-range radar deal-Pentagon Company Update: Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) – Alcoa Wins Titanium Contract with Lockheed Martin for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter