Newport News, Va.-based Huntington Ingalls (HII 1.04%) dodged the downturn in the stock markets on Thursday, with its shares bolstered by strong earnings reported early in the day.
Q3 2013 revenues at the Virginia defense contractor grew only modestly year over year, but still matched consensus estimates of $1.64 billion. Meanwhile, earnings of $1.36 per share significantly exceeded the $0.82 that analysts expected and represented a more than fivefold increase over Q3 2012 levels.
Huntington made a point of noting that much of the increase was attributable to onetime events such as insurance payouts received, compensating the company for past hurricane damage, and the absence of workers' comp expenses that weighed down earnings last year. Even so, investors applauded the results, sending Huntington shares up 0.4% by day's end.
The main bit of bad news reported Thursday: New business won by the company this past quarter amounted to a mere $200 million, an amount far too small to replace revenues booked during the quarter and indicative of a possible slowdown in revenues in future quarters.
