
Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] on Thursday reported a steep drop in fourth quarter earnings driven primarily by declines across its shipbuilding operations. Net income slid 52 percent to $120 million, $2.99 earnings per share (EPS), from $249 million ($4.35 EPS) a year ago. Excluding pension impacts, per share earnings of $2.84 were 13 cents EPS below consensus estimates. Sales dipped 3 percent to $2.7 billion from $2.8 billion a year ago. At the operating level, the drop in sales was…