Northrop sees 2010 profit topping analysts' estimates

Northrop Grumman Corp., the third- largest U.S. defense contractor, forecast 2010 earnings that topped analysts' estimates on expectations that profit margins will widen.

Profit this year will be $5.70 to $5.95 a share, Los Angeles-based Northrop said today in a statement. The average estimate of 18 analysts in a Bloomberg survey was $5.59.

The company has a defensive systems division in Rolling Meadows.

Chief Executive Officer Wes Bush, who stepped into the job Jan. 1 and previously was chief operating officer, said in May that Northrop planned to improve profit margins in the shipbuilding unit. The company today forecast "margin rate expansion" across all of its businesses.

Investors will be looking at the "strategic vision and capital deployment priorities for the company as put forth by its new CEO," Sam Pearlstein, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in New York, wrote in a Jan. 8 note to clients.

Fourth-quarter net income was $413 million, or $1.31 a share, compared with a net loss of $2.53 billion, or $7.75, a year earlier, the company said today. Sales rose 1.7 percent $8.93 billion.

Northrop gained 33 cents to $58.51 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares climbed 20 percent in the 12 months before today.