Northrop Grumman Crushed It on Earnings — Then Sold Off

Heading into earnings day on Thursday, I noted that Northrop Grumman had already come a long way toward meeting Wall Street’s targets for fiscal 2016, having already made three-quarters of the revenue it was supposed to collect and 81% of the profits it was supposed to earn. Nevertheless, the company was issuing cautious guidance of its own for the year, which seemed to imply there was a risk Northrop would fail to deliver.

Northrop’s New Combat Drone Could Outclass Boeing F/A-18, Lockheed F-35

One year ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency tapped Northrop Grumman to build it a TERN prototype, capable of launching from and landing on small naval warships. Just six months later , before TERN had even conducted its first test flight, DARPA decided it liked the new drone so much that it “doubled down” and ordered Northrop to go ahead and build it a second test vehicle.