Summary
The defense sector continues to outperform the S&P 500 in 2018.
Northrop Grumman has underperformed compared to both markets.
Recent earnings results and the company's dividend history make the stock attractive to me.
As I wrote in a previous article, Lockheed Martin (LMT) is my favorite name in defense sector. Another defense stock that I have been interested in for some time Northrop Grumman (NOC). The Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) has been one of the hottest investments over the past five years. Within that ETF, Northrop Grumman has performed very well.
Source: YCharts
Northrop Grumman’s total return is 2.7x that of the S&P 500 and almost 1.7x that of the Aerospace & Defense ETF. In fact, all of the Big 5 defense stocks have beaten the ITA over this time period.
