NOC Northrop Grumman Corp Holding Co

By Joshua Jamerson 

Northrop Grumman Corp. provided a downbeat view for profit this year, even as it posted 12% sales growth in the latest quarter driven by solid sales growth in its aerospace systems segment.

The company's growth in the latest quarter was driven by the aerospace systems unit, where sales grew 20% to $2.87 billion. It is now larger than the company's mission systems division, which grew 9% to $2.85 billion from a year ago, when it was then the firm's largest segment by sales. The company's smaller technology services unit grew 8% from a year ago.

The aerospace systems division grew in the fourth quarter due to higher volumes in its manned aircraft and autonomous systems programs, which has been helped recently by classified programs where the company isn't allowed to disclose more details. Sales were also boosted by higher volume of the F-35 jet fighter and E-2D aircraft in the latest quarter.

The Falls Church, Va., contractor in late 2015 won a hard-fought contest to build new long-range bombers for the U.S. Air Force, beating out rivals for a contract valued at roughly $80 billion. The company on Thursday said it ended the year with a total backlog of $45.3 billion, up 26% from the end of 2015.

Northrop Grumman reported net income of $525 million, or $2.96 a share, down from $459 million, or $2.49 a share. Excluding certain pension-related items the company earned $2.66 a share.

Sales rose to $6.4 billion from $5.7 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $2.49 a share on $5.93 billion in revenue.

For 2017, the company expects earnings in a range of $11.30 to $11.60 a share, which was much less than the $12.23 projected by analysts.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 26, 2017 08:12 ET (13:12 GMT)

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