US military contractors stock rises

Items from today's New York Times

Heady Days for Makers of Weapons
New York Times
December 26, 2006
Leslie Wayne

Excerpts:

THESE are very good times for military contractors. Profits are up, their stocks are rising and Pentagon spending is reaching record levels....

 Next year’s Pentagon budget is expected to exceed $560 billion...

And no one expects Democrats, in the last two years of the Bush administration, to make major changes, especially with the war continuing. Democrats are sensitive to the charge of being “soft” on defense...

Evidence of the industry’s good fortune is reflected in the stocks of major contractors over the last year. At the end of 2005, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the largest contractor, was trading around $62 a share. Now Lockheed is around $92 a share. Over the last year, Boeing, which holds the No. 2 position, saw its shares rise from about $66 a share to around almost $89 a share. Meanwhile, Raytheon stock has risen from around $39 a share to more than $53 a share in the last year and General Dynamics has gone from the high $50s a share to almost $74 a share over the same period.

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