By Calvin Biesecker
Raytheon [RTN] yesterday reported sharply lower net income in its fourth quarter due to an adjustment for pension expenses and a tough comparison with a year ago when the company benefited from a large tax settlement.
Excluding the one-time gains and losses, Raytheon’s operating results were solid.
Net income fell 30 percent to $421 million, $1.02 earnings per share (EPS), from $598 million ($1.50 EPS), due to a $45 million (11 cents EPS) hit from the pension adjustment, which is due to the impact of pension investment returns, and a $214 million gain in the fourth quarter of 2007 related to favorable tax adjustments. Results missed analysts’ expectations by nine cents EPS, which was due to the pension adjustment.
After removing the impact of the pension adjustment and tax benefit, Raytheon said its adjusted income from continuing operations was $466 million versus $420 million a year ago, an 11 percent increase.
Higher operating income was driven by double-digit profit gains at the Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) and Network Centric Systems (NCS) segments and a modest increase at Technical Services. The improved profits were driven by a combination of higher volume, better performance on certain programs and the sale of licensed software.
Sales in the quarter edged up a percent to $6.1 billion from $6 billion, as gains at the IDS and Technical Services segments were partially offset by lower revenues at Space and Airborne Systems and NCS. Sales at the Missile Systems and Intelligence and Information Systems segments were basically flat. Sales were depressed somewhat due to the fact that there were three fewer work days in the recent quarter than there were in the fourth quarter a year ago.
The growth in sales was driven by Army and training programs as well as a double-digit expansion of international business. Expanding in international markets is part of Raytheon’s growth strategy. In 2008, 20 percent of sales were international and this year the expectation is between 22 and 24 percent, William Swanson, chairman and CEO of Raytheon, said yesterday.
For all of 2008, Raytheon’s net income dropped 35 percent to $1.7 billion ($3.95 EPS) from $2.6 billion ($3.80 EPS). The higher per share earnings are due to fewer common shares of stock outstanding. Adjusting for the fourth quarter pension adjustment and tax benefits in 2007, income from continuing operations was up 17 percent to $1.7 billion for the year.
Sales in 2008 increased 9 percent to $23.2 billion from $21.3 billion. Backlog at the end of the year was a record $38.9 billion, up $2.3 billion from 2007.
Raytheon reaffirmed its guidance for 2009 despite slight headwind from pension expenses.