Huntington Ingalls raised its 2026 shipbuilding revenue forecast on Thursday, after posting an over 18 per cent rise in second-quarter profit, as stronger demand and improved execution at its Newport News and Ingalls shipyards boosted sales and margins.
Shares of the US military shipbuilder jumped 13 per cent before the bell following the results.
The results come as Huntington works through labour and supply-chain challenges that have pressured its costs in recent years.
Meanwhile, demand for submarines and aircraft carriers remains buoyed by geopolitical tensions and a US push to expand naval capacity.
However, Huntington's quarterly growth was driven by higher production volumes at Newport News and Ingalls, where management had highlighted hiring, distributed shipbuilding and throughput improvements as key priorities for 2026.
Total operating margin was 6.1 per cent during the second quarter, compared with five per cent in the previous quarter and 5.3 per cent a year ago.
The company expects full-year shipbuilding revenue to range between $10.2 billion and $10.4 billion, up from its prior view of $9.7 billion to $9.9 billion.
For the quarter ended June 30, total sales and services revenue rose nearly 11 per cent to $3.42 billion from a year ago.
Second-quarter profit came in at $5.27 per share, compared with $3.86 a year ago.
(Reporting by Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)