Raytheon Co. on Thursday reported a 15-percent slide in third-quarter profit, although the U.S. defense contractor boosted its full-year sales guidance as it digested the purchase of a commercial cybersecurity provider.
Raytheon left its 2015 profit guidance unchanged, unlike rivals Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., both which also have Colorado presence, though operating cash flow in the quarter almost trebled to $1.1 billion.
Net profits fell to $443 million in the three months to Sept. 27 from $519 million a year earlier, with per-share earnings slipping to $1.47 from $1.66. Sales rose to $5.8 billion from $5.5 billion, and the company expects net sales for the full year between $23 billion and $23.3 billion, up from its previous forecast of $22.7 billion to $23.2 billion.
Raytheon is betting it can leverage cybersecurity skills it honed for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies to sell to banks and retailers, investing almost $1.7 billion earlier this year to establish a stand-alone business in an area where its defense peers have struggled to make money.
The company bought control of Websense Inc. from private-equity firm Vista Partners LLC in April. Raytheon said Websense, which has 21,000 data-security clients, half of them overseas, will form the core of a new cyber joint venture with forecast sales of $500 million this year and margins of around 20 percent.
The Waltham, Mass.-based company employs about 200 in Colorado Springs, 1,500 at its main Colorado operation in Aurora, and a handful at Air Force bases around the state.
Raytheon was in September over a multi-year U.S. Air Force contract valued at $700 million.
The company as it takes over from Lockheed Martin the operational support for the Air Force’s North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, near Colorado Springs.
Denver Post staff reporter Laura Keeney contributed to this report.
