What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the pre-market session after Israel carried out significant strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites, dramatically escalating fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.
Companies like Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman saw gains as the market anticipated higher defense spending and new orders. This reaction contrasts with the broader market downturn, highlighting the "safe haven" appeal of defense stocks during times of global tension.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Defense Contractors company Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) jumped 7%. Is now the time to buy Lockheed Martin? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Defense Contractors company RTX (NYSE: RTX) jumped 10.5%. Is now the time to buy RTX? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Defense Contractors company Kratos (NASDAQ: KTOS) jumped 5.5%. Is now the time to buy Kratos? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Defense Contractors company Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) jumped 6.6%. Is now the time to buy Northrop Grumman? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On RTX (RTX)
RTX’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 5 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for RTX and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 11 months ago when the stock gained 10% on the news that the company reported a "beat and raise" quarter. RTX blew past analysts' organic revenue expectations. Its revenue also outperformed Wall Street's estimates. That the company raised full year revenue and EPS expectations was icing on the cake. Overall, we think this was a really good quarter that should please shareholders.
RTX is up 25.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $145.57 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of RTX’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,171.
Here at StockStory, we certainly understand the potential of thematic investing. Diverse winners from Microsoft (MSFT) to Alphabet (GOOG), Coca-Cola (KO) to Monster Beverage (MNST) could all have been identified as promising growth stories with a megatrend driving the growth. So, in that spirit, we’ve identified a relatively under-the-radar profitable growth stock benefiting from the rise of AI, available to you FREE via this link.
