Orlando, FL — While Lockheed Martin’s space unit reported increased earnings in 2018, the company cautioned that it expects profits from that unit to decline in 2019 because of decreased contributions from United Launch Alliance.
Lockheed Martin reported Jan. 29 an overall business segment operating profit of $5.88 billion on net sales of $53.7 billion for the full 2018 fiscal year, both increases over 2017. The company’s overall financial results “not only exceeded many of our expectations but also set records across a number of our financial metrics,” said Marillyn Hewson, president and chief executive of Lockheed Martin, in an earnings call.
The company’s space business unit reported $9.8 billion in net sales for 2018, an increase of two percent over 2017. The unit had an operating profit of $1.06 billion for the year, up eight percent from 2017.
Lockheed said the growth in sales was primarily due to strategic and missile defense programs, which increased revenue by $225 million. Additional work on the Orion crewed spacecraft program for NASA resulted in an additional $65 million in net sales. However, revenue from commercial satellite programs dropped by $70 million and government satellite programs declined by $25 million in 2018, both due to lower volume, the company explained.
The increase in operating profit came from commercial satellites, which saw a $40 million increase over 2017 because of what the company described as “a lower amount of charges recorded for performance matters on certain programs” that it did not identify. Profit from government satellite programs grew by $30 million because of higher risk retirements for government satellite services.
Read More HERE | Source: Space News
Posted on January 30, 2019 in General