Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) which is the world’s largest missile maker announced that their Q3 profits for 2013 fell short by 2.8% mostly because of budget cuts in the US. The company however raised forecasts on its earnings for the full year pegging its hopes on Overseas Sales which the company’s CFO said was a key growth area for the company. The company reported a net income of $487 million at $1.51 a share which was a dip from figures from the same quarter last year where it made $501 million also at $1.51 a share. The earnings however beat estimates from several analysts who pegged the price per share at $1.33.
Third quarter sales for Raytheon declined to $5.84 billion which is a dip of 3.4%, the company’s backlog for Q3 was $32.2 billion which also saw a dip from figures from last year standing at $35 billion. The company has been on a cost cutting spree lately; it has reduced its workforce by as much as 10% since 2011 and has also consolidated its six divisions to keep only four. However the company CFO spoke on the matter saying that they have been preparing and expecting things to change as the defense industry itself is a very challenging venture and that the company has been preparing for such a situation for years now. Some of the company’s contracts and awards are being questioned by its competitors.
Raytheon raised projections for its yearend profit outlook to $5.77 from $5.67 per share. This figure is also higher than the company’s earlier projections made in July. The company said that the budget cuts and the partial government shutdown were the two factors that were considered when making this forecast. The company CEO said that challenges in the industry were normal and that they were prepared to face most of them adequately.
