WASHINGTON — Huntington Ingalls Industries reported stronger than expected results Thursday, and investors rewarded the American shipbuilder with an 8-percent jump in stock price.
Revenues for the third quarter were $1.8 billion, up 4.8 percent from $1.717 billion in the same period last year.
Speaking on a conference call with Wall Street analysts, HII Pesident and CEO Mike Petters credited the results to solid operational performance and the retirement of the company's debt.
Petters also noted that HII spent $103 million repurchasing 915,000 shares in the third quarter, and the company's board recently approved a 25 percent increase in dividend from $0.40 to $0.50, as well as doubling the company's repurchasing program to $1.2 billion.
The strong results were enough to overcome an increase to the estimated cost to complete the USS Gerald R. Ford, the first of a new class of aircraft carriers HII is building for the US Navy.
"While it is a bit disappointing that we had to recognize a cost increase for the second quarter in a row, we are less than a year from delivery [on the carrier], and the Newport News team is focused on completing the work on this first-of-class ship in a safe and high-quality manner," Petters said.
Petters also highlighted the firm's performance at its Ingalls shipyard, where it builds its America-class amphibious assault ships and San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks.
HII exceeded Wall Street expectations last quarter as well, suggesting it may be moving past the financial difficulties the company faced when it spun off from Northrop Grumman in 2011.
Email: aclevenger@defensenews.com.
