Defence Stocks Favoured

Defence shares are drawing fresh attention as investors lean toward companies with long order books and steadier cash flow than many cyclical industrial names. (marketbeat.com) MarketBeat on April 19 flagged GE Aerospace, Rocket Lab, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and RTX as the defence stocks to watch, using recent dollar trading volume as its screen. The site said investors often treat the group as relatively defensive because demand is tied to government budgets and geopolitical tensions. (marketbeat.com) The latest bullish call landed on Lockheed Martin. In a Yahoo Finance article published April 19, Jim Cramer said Lockheed’s upcoming quarter “could be a blockbuster” and called the stock “a buy here,” citing government orders and missile demand. (finance.yahoo.com) The case for the sector rests on backlog, which is the pile of signed work companies have not delivered yet. Lockheed Martin ended 2025 with nearly $194 billion of backlog, while RTX reported a $268 billion backlog, including $107 billion tied to defense. (lockheedmartin.com; (rtx.com) Cash flow is the second part of the story. Lockheed Martin reported $8.6 billion of operating cash flow and $6.9 billion of free cash flow for 2025, and RTX reported $10.6 billion of operating cash flow and $7.9 billion of free cash flow. (lockheedmartin.com; (rtx.com) Boeing is in the same conversation for a different reason. Its 2025 annual report said the company’s total backlog reached a record $682 billion and that its Defense, Space & Security unit had secured the U.S. Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter program while management worked to stabilize the business. (sec.gov) Rocket Lab is the outlier in size, but not in theme. The company said full-year 2025 revenue rose 38% to $601.8 million and backlog climbed 73% to $1.85 billion after more than 30 new launch contracts and an $816 million Space Development Agency satellite award. (stocktitan.net) GE Aerospace sits between commercial aviation and military demand. MarketBeat included it in the defence screen, and GE’s 2025 annual report said its Terre Haute, Indiana, site makes combustors and structures for military as well as commercial aircraft engines. (marketbeat.com; (sec.gov) The pitch is not risk-free. MarketBeat said defence stocks still face exposure to shifts in defense spending, regulation and politics, even when investors treat the group as steadier than other industrial sectors. (marketbeat.com) For now, the market’s focus is less on headlines than on whether these companies can turn years of orders into delivered systems and cash. That is the test facing Lockheed’s next quarter and the wider defence trade. (finance.yahoo.com; (lockheedmartin.com))