What Happened?
Shares of aerospace and defense company Raytheon (NYSE: RTX) jumped 3.4% in the afternoon session after the stock continued to rally as its Raytheon business was awarded a $1.1 billion contract from the U.S. Navy to produce AIM-9X Block II missiles.
Under the contract, the company will produce the missiles along with associated hardware and software for both the U.S. military and foreign allies to meet increased demand. To handle the growing orders, Raytheon is increasing its production capacity to 2,500 missiles annually. The significant contract win supported an already positive view from Wall Street analysts, who held a bullish consensus on the stock.
The shares were trading at $198.86, up 3.7% from the previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
RTX’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 1 move greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 8 months ago when the stock gained 9.5% on the news that the company reported strong third-quarter 2025 results that beat expectations and raised its full-year financial forecast.
The aerospace and defense company posted revenue of $22.48 billion, an 11.9% increase year-on-year, which surpassed analysts' estimates. Earnings were also better than expected, with adjusted earnings per share coming in at $1.70, up from $1.45 in the same period last year.
This figure comfortably beat Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.41 per share. Following the strong performance, RTX lifted its outlook for the full year, raising its adjusted sales guidance to a midpoint of $86.75 billion and its adjusted earnings per share guidance to a midpoint of $6.15.
RTX is up 6.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $198.86 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $212.16 from March 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of RTX’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,294.
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