LITTON'S QUARTERLY EARNINGS SOAR 9%.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer In a sign that aerospace fortunes are brightening, Woodland Hills-based Litton Industries Named after inventor Charles Litton Sr., Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States, bought by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2001. Inc. reported on Wednesday a 9 percent jump in quarterly earnings. The defense contractor Noun 1. defense contractor - a contractor concerned with the development and manufacture of systems of defense armed forces, armed services, military, military machine, war machine - the military forces of a nation; "their military is the largest in the region"; , a major designer and builder of warships for the U.S. Navy and allied forces, earned $39.8 million, or 83 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. for the first quarter, which ended Oct. 31, of the 1997 fiscal period. This compares to net income of $36.7 million, 77 cents, in the same period a year ago. The improved earnings result in part from a 25 percent jump in quarterly sales. Litton's sales reached $1.049 billion, up from $836.2 million a year ago. Operating profits rose 24 percent to $91.6 million. John M. Leonis, Litton's chairman and chief executive officer, attributed the gains to ``excellent'' demand for the company's commercial electronic products and to the acquisition in last year's third quarter of PRC, an information technology company. ``During the quarter, the company's cash flow from operations Cash flow from operations A firm's net cash inflow resulting directly from its regular operations (disregarding extraordinary items such as the sale of fixed assets or transaction costs associated with issuing securities), calculated as the sum of net income plus noncash expenses remained robust, facilitating the reduction of $64 million in short-term debt Short-term debt Debt obligations, recorded as current liabilities, requiring payment within the year. ,'' Leonis said in a written comments. ``Our balance sheet is conservatively leveraged and should continue to enable the company to make the necessary investments to grow in our principal aerospace, defense and commercial electronics markets.'' Industry analyst Pierre A. Chao at Morgan Stanley  To comply with Wikipedia's , the introduction of this article needs a complete rewrite. & Co. in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of said there were no big surprises in the numbers and that Litton should have a good year. ``Everything is on track and trucking along,'' he said. Peter Aseritis at CS First Boston said Litton is living up to Wall Street's expectations. ``I had predicted (per share) earnings at 83 cents and they hit it to the penny,'' he said. ``These are good, solid results. John Leonis has done a good job running the company.'' Litton's stock closed Wednesday at 46-5/8, down -3/8. |
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