The Week

Lockheed Martin slipped 0.21% this week to close at $524.19, outperforming the S&P 500 by about 0.59 percentage points. Across the four trading days, the stock climbed early then pulled back: it touched a weekly high of $543.59 on Tuesday, 8 September, and later slid to $521.87 intraday on Friday, 11 September, before recovering into the close. The weekly range was 4.08%, and average daily volume ran 26.36% above the 60-day median. The shares still sit below the 20-day moving average at $558.01 and the 60-day at $548.31, placing the stock in the lower half of its two-month range.

Key Events

The week’s company news centred on missile and space-system orders. On Monday, 7 September, reports emerged that Sweden would buy Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS artillery rocket system in a $729m deal; the next day the company confirmed the contract and flagged a 19% surge in missile sales. Orders then stacked up quickly. On 9 September, Lockheed Martin won an AUD 1.32bn update to Australia’s AIR6500 contract and demonstrated autonomous swarm-on-swarm drone defence at the US Army’s T-REX exercise. On 10 September it announced a partnership with Poland’s WZE on PAC-3 MSE attitude control system production. On 11 September it secured $114m in US Space Force orders to modernise GPS ground systems. Also this week, L3Harris won a $4.7bn PAC-3 MSE propulsion-systems contract from Lockheed Martin, highlighting supply-chain flows within the sector. The CEO and CFO are set to speak at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference webcast.

Analyst Ratings

As of 10 September, 22 institutions cover Lockheed Martin: 6 rate it buy, 2 overweight, 12 hold, 1 underweight, and 1 has no opinion. The consensus rating is buy, with a consensus target price of $637.84, about 21.68% above the latest close of $524.19. Target prices range from $503 to $756, a spread of more than $250 that points to wide disagreement. The stock ranks 6th among 84 aerospace and defence names, putting it in the top tier.

The Week Ahead

Macro data arrives in force next week. Tuesday, 15 September brings the New York Fed Empire State manufacturing index, with a prior reading of 20.6 and a forecast of 14.75. Wednesday, 16 September is heavier: retail sales, retail sales ex-autos, retail control, import prices, the NAHB housing market index and weekly EIA crude inventories are all due. Defence shares are sensitive to rate and fiscal expectations, so these releases may shape the sector’s valuation debate. On the company side, no further timeline has emerged for the week’s string of new orders; watch for management’s comments at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference.

In Short

A modest weekly pullback paired with order momentum across missiles, space and air defence kept the stock resilient versus the S&P 500. The analyst picture is neutral-to-positive: most brokers rate it buy or overweight and the consensus target sits more than 20% above spot, yet the wide target range and the large share of hold ratings show real disagreement. Valuation stands near 19.24x earnings and 13.80x book, with a 2.63% dividend yield. On the latest session, large and medium-lot flows were net sellers, creating tension against the constructive broker view. The next test is whether macro data shifts that flow and what management signals on order cadence and delivery.

This article is generated by LongbridgeAI from market data, for information only and not investment advice.