While the stock market overall isn’t exactly stellar, not every defense company has struggled this past month. In fact, some companies, like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, Elbit Systems, SAIC, and Leidos saw some jumps in their current price in the past month. While February was lower overall for defense stocks, many climbed in March. It’s hard to tell if that’s from increased need due to the Russia-Ukraine war or if it’s simply an influx of contracts or talk of acquisitions that’s moving the dial.
Defense Stocks to Watch in March 2022
COVID-19 response efforts continue to be supported with DoD contracts; however, that doesn’t always translate to upward movement for company stocks. Keep checking which contractors consistently perform – especially compared to the overall market. Currently, the average S&P 500 YTD return is -11.14% and the average Nasdaq YTD return is -18.22%.
| Company | Ticker | Current Price | Trailing P/E | Market Cap | YTD Return | Analysts Recommendation | Average Target Price |
| The Boeing Company | BA | $179.89 | N/A | 102.33B | -10.64% | Overweight | $255.69 |
| General Dynamics | GD | $237.62 | 20.57 | 64.93B | 13.98% | Overweight | $260.25 |
| Lockheed Martin | LMT | $448.67 | 19.71 | 121.04B | 26.24% | Overweight | $449.12 |
| Palantir Technologies | PLTR | $10.77 | N/A | 21.32B | -40.86% | Hold | $13.13 |
| AT&T | T | $23.09 | 8.36 | 163.5B | -6.14% | Overweight | $28.75 |
| CACI | CACI | $299.69 | 16.61 | 6.91B | 11.32% | Overweight | $313.33 |
| L3Harris Technologies | LHX | $258.11 | 28.37 | 48.29B | 21.04% | Overweight | $267.32 |
| Northrop Grumman | NOC | $447.82 | 10.3 | 68.91B | 15.69% | Overweight | $441.41 |
| Eli Lilly and Co | LLY | $275.46 | 44.94 | 256.18B | -0.28% | Overweight | $290.47 |
| Kratos | KTOS | $18.56 | N/A | 2.26B | -4.33% | Overweight | $23.05 |
| Raytheon | RTX | $97.62 | 38.11 | 144.82B | 13.43% | Overweight | $107.59 |
| Textron | TXT | $71.80 | 21.79 | 15.12B | -6.99% | Overweight | $86.25 |
| Elbit Systems | ESLT | $211.84 | 28.06 | 9.16B | 21.66% | Overweight | $173.00 |
| Honeywell | HON | $187.79 | 23.73 | 125.64B | -9.94% | Overweight | $221.93 |
| Amazon | AMZN | $2,947.33 | 45.47 | 1.44T | -11.61% | Buy | $4,115.04 |
| Microsoft | MSFT | $287.15 | 30.55 | 2.07T | -14.62% | Buy | $369.83 |
| KBR Inc | KBR | $52.94 | 463.57 | 7.5B | 11.17% | Buy | $60.56 |
| Pfizer | PFE | $52.21 | 13.55 | 293.82B | -11.58% | Overweight | $59.90 |
| SAIC | SAIC | $88.72 | 17.54 | 4.99B | 6.14% | Overweight | $99.88 |
| Leidos | LDOS | $103.97 | 19.75 | 14.39B | 16.95% | Overweight | $110.00 |
Terms to Understand
Trailing P/E: A ratio for valuing a company; calculated by dividing the current share price by total earning per share over the past 12 months. N/A means the P/E is negative.
Market Cap: Market Cap is the total market value of a company’s outstanding shares. Calculated by multiplying the total shares by the current market price of one share.
Analyst Recommendation: Consensus Analysts Recommendation is taken from MarketWatch’s five recommendations: Sell, Underweight, Hold, Overweight, and Buy, with Sell being the worst and Buy being the best. While Overweight seems like a bad thing in life, analysts are saying that it could perform better in the next 12 months compared to the benchmark. The key is understanding the analyst’s benchmark that they are using.
Average Target Price: Average Target Price is taken from MarketWatch
*Numbers are as of March 15, 2022, close of market.
*This article is intended to be informational only; it is not financial advice.
