Northrop Grumman (NOC)
Forward P/E is 18.67x against a peer median of 20.94x, a ratio of 0.89x — just below the fair range — with trailing P/E 17.32x and PEG 3.00. Latest-quarter revenue grew 6.7% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), below the group pace, and the high PEG is a caution. Value-trap check: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the group median growth is positive, so the discount is not explained by falling sales. Delivered demand check: the aerospace & defense group's median growth was 11.0% year over year — demand rising.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises to about 18.8x or above (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth rises above 11% year over year for two quarters, which would remove the growth shortfall behind the caution. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above about 24.1x (1.15x the peer median) while revenue growth stays below 7% year over year and the PEG stays above 2.5.
Northrop Grumman builds military aircraft, missile defence and space systems, and its sales grew 6.7% in the latest quarter, slower than similar companies. Its shares cost a little less per dollar of expected earnings than those peers charge, so they look undervalued. The margin is thin, though, and the slower growth is a reason for caution.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Northrop Grumman returned +61.95% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Northrop Grumman: -38.4% (2026-03-02 to 2026-10-07). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 18.67x against a peer median of 20.94x, a ratio of 0.89x — just below the fair range — with trailing P/E 17.32x and PEG 3.00. Latest-quarter revenue grew 6.7% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), below the group pace, and the high PEG is a caution. Value-trap check: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the group median growth is positive, so the discount is not explained by falling sales. Delivered demand check: the aerospace & defense group's median growth was 11.0% year over year — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 18.7× against a peer median of 20.9×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the aerospace & defense group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 11.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. This company grew more slowly than the group, at 6.7%. Latest-quarter sales growth was +6.7% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northrop Grumman (NOC) | $549.22 | 18.7× | 17.3× |
| HWM | — | 33.1× | 42.3× |
| TDG | — | 24.3× | 34.4× |
| GD | — | 20.2× | 21.6× |
| HONA | — | 20.4× | 27.1× |
| LHX | — | 20.9× | 26.1× |
| Peer median | 20.9× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Sep 2026 2026-09-30 | $11.1B | — | $1.1B | 7.89 | $1.4B |
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $10.9B | — | $1.1B | 7.68 | $978M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $9.9B | — | $875M | 6.14 | $-1.8B |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $11.7B | — | $1.4B | — | $3.2B |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $10.4B | — | $1.1B | 7.67 | $1.3B |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $10.4B | — | $1.2B | 8.15 | $637M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $9.5B | — | $481M | 3.32 | $-1.8B |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $10.7B | — | $1.3B | — | $1.8B |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $10.0B | — | $1.0B | 7.00 | $730M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $10.2B | — | $940M | 6.36 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $10.1B | — | $944M | 6.32 | $-976M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $10.6B | — | $-535M | — | $1.6B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 25-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP /DE/ |
| Chief executive | Kathy Warden (source: https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/leadership/kathy-warden) |
| Sector | Industrials — Aerospace & Defense — builds military aircraft, missile defence and space systems |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $549.22 |
| Market value (market cap) | $78.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 142,064,489 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $43.6B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $4.5B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $3.8B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Sep 2026 (of 25 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +61.95% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -38.4% (2026-03-02 to 2026-10-07) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E (5-year median): not computed in the Phase 1 batch — UNVERIFIED
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001133421.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001133421.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/NOC/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.