By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) rose Wednesday after a Reuters report Tuesday that the companies had won separate contracts to design the next-generation interceptor for the U.S. missile defense network.
The Northrop deal is worth up to $3.9 billion, and the Lockheed contract could be valued at up to $3.7 billion.
Lockheed Martin has partnered Aerojet Rocketdyne for the project. Lockheed's shares rose 1.98% on Wednesday.
Cowen & Co analyst Cai Rumohr has a buy rating on Lockheed with a price target of $410, which is 14% higher than the stock’s current levels.
The next-generation interceptor program could be worth as much as $10 billion to $12 billion over its lifetime as the contractor works to make the technology capable of defeating current threats and future technological advances from countries like North Korea and Iran, Reuters said.
Northrop Grumman shares rose 1.4%.