Some Wall Street analysts expect a growing number of aerospace/defense companies to implement a more rigorous coupling of executive compensation to stock-price performance.
Observers of the U.S. airline industry--not to mention investors--surely must wonder what it will take for Trans World Airlines Inc. to start earning a net profit.
Until last week, Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) was considered one of the companies that would survive the consolidation that is gaining momentum in the federal services and information technology market.
Consolidation pressures, depressed Asian demand and uncertainties about how global alliances will be regulated are likely to be troublesome for Europe's major airlines this year, preventing most of them from matching their record 1997 financial performances, according to some British and German market analysts.
When Northwest and Continental airlines announced their proposed alliance last week (see p. 32), some industry observers quickly assumed the partnership--if approved--will trigger further U.S. carrier consolidation.
Despite Boeing's dominant position in the commercial aircraft market and its leading position in defense and space, a host of uncertainties surrounding the company's near-term business prospects prompted Standard&Poor's to revise its outlook for the troubled aerospace giant to ``negative'' last week.
As one of the most active consolidators in the aviation parts and inventory-management sector, AAR Corp. continues to acquire niche businesses that broaden the company's reach.
Looking ahead to the collective stock-price performance of the U.S. aerospac e/defense industry's market leaders in 1998, it would be nice to think the group has nowhere to go but up. But, of course, that remains to be seen.
Wall Street keeps raising the financial-performance hurdle for U.S. airlines, as strong passenger growth and falling fuel prices bolster expectations for higher profits.
Vivid Technologies Inc., which provides automated explosives-detection equipment for airline luggage, is setting up a joint venture company in partnership with an Indian concern.
Wall Street has high expectations for Howmet International, which began trading under the symbol HWM on the New York Stock Exchange last Wednesday, opening at 151/4.
One by one, US Airways Group Inc. is implementing the initiatives that management pledged they would pursue in the wake of securing a new five-year pact with pilots aimed at lowering costs.
Like their U.S. counterparts, most major European airlines are likely to post record or near-record profits for the year, with Lufthansa German Airlines' financial performance among the European industry's strongest.
Shareholders of both Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Electric Co. will be well-served by an accord between the two industry giants in which GE will swap $2.8 billion of its preferred stock in Lockheed Martin for cash and various operations Lockheed Martin had been seeking to divest.
Atlas Air Inc. is girding for the strong possibility that new 747-400s it has on order could be delayed 30-60 days because of the Boeing Co.'s production problems.
Wall Street is giving Boeing Co. the benefit of the doubt and buying into the notion that the company's production problems, although severe, are only temporary.
Wall Street analysts who follow the Boeing Co. seem to have concluded that the production bottlenecks that are proving so troublesome for the commercial airframe manufacturer and many of its vendors will be all but gone by next spring.
If the emerging market for automated explosive detection equipment for airline baggage grows as rapidly as some industry observers think it will in the next 2-3 years, Vivid Technologies Inc.'s stock will be one to watch closely.
Considering how poorly America West Holdings' stock has done thus far in 1997, it would seem the U.S.' ninth-largest airline may be one of the most underappreciated companies in the commercial air transportation sector.
Some market professionals are suggesting US Airways Group may dampen its third-quarter profits through accounting provisions to make the company's financial performance less of an issue in future labor negotiations.
Communications and electronics supplier Harris Corp. has been providing weather information to the FAA since 1989 through the integration of computer and software packages, and now the $3.8-billion company is poised to expand its substantial book of business with the government agency yet again.
Merger-and-acquisition specialists expect cash-rich General Dynamics Corp. to emerge as the winner in the defense industry's latest consolidation play--United Defense L.P., which is being auctioned by co-owners FMC Corp. and Harsco Corp.
