What happened
Shares of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings (AJRD) soared 12.7% higher in July.
So what
Although Aerojet put out a couple of minor press releases last month, there wasn't any one really big item of news to explain investors' optimism about the stock. The company is testing an electric propulsion system for NASA's use in deep space exploration -- part of a year-old, $65 million contract with the space agency. It's also making progress with testing of its RS-25 engines for use on the Space Launch System.
But the really big news on Aerojet is yet to come -- presumably when Aerojet reports its fiscal Q2 earnings.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is a key supplier to NASA's new Space Launch System. Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Aerojet has not yet announced an earnings release date, but Q1 earnings came out on May 8, 2017. Roll the calendar three months forward, and it seems likely that earnings for Q2 should arrive on or about Aug. 8 -- so roughly next Tuesday, in other words.
What should investors expect when Aerojet reports? Well, analysts say we should see Aerojet report $433.7 million in sales and $0.15 per share in (probably pro forma) earnings -- which would be very big news, because the company only earned $0.09 in last year's Q2.
Then again, with Aerojet Rocketdyne stock selling for nearly 88 times earnings today, it's going to need some really big news to justify its current stock price. Fingers crossed that the news will be good enough.
