Huntington Ingalls Breaks Ground on Navy Facility as Analysts Adjust Targets
Huntington Ingalls has begun work on a $50 million Navy customer support complex, even as multiple analyst firms recently adjusted price targets and earnings estimates for the shipbuilder.
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) and the U.S. Navy's SUPSHIP GC office have broken ground on a new customer support complex in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The 101,000-square-foot project carries a cost of $50 million and is being financed through a partnership between the Navy and the company's Ingalls Shipbuilding division. Scheduled for completion in June 2028, the site is designed to house more than 600 SUPSHIP GC personnel under one roof to improve operational efficiency.
The infrastructure development comes as research firms revise their projections for the defense contractor. Equities researchers at Alembic Global Advisors trimmed their fourth-quarter 2026 earnings per share forecast for HII to $4.93, down from an earlier projection of $4.97. The firm also projected full-year 2028 earnings of $22.32 per share, while the broader consensus estimate for full-year earnings sits at $19.30 per share.
Other Wall Street brokerages have updated their outlooks as well. Analysts at Citigroup lowered their price target on Huntington Ingalls from $379.00 to $352.00, while keeping a buy rating on the shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised its objective from $304.00 to $352.00 on November 3, assigning a market perform rating. According to MarketBeat, the consensus rating among analysts stands at Moderate Buy with an average price target of $366.12. FactSet figures compiled by TradingView indicate an average target of $356.25 among 12 analysts, down from a previous $358.50.
The updates follow Huntington Ingalls's quarterly financial results reported on October 29. The company delivered earnings per share of $5.48, beating expectations of $4.36 and rising from $3.68 in the same quarter of the prior year. Revenue totaled $3.54 billion, up 10.8% year over year and topping projected sales of $3.38 billion. The company subsequently raised its quarterly dividend from $1.38 to $1.41 per share, scheduled for distribution on December 11 to shareholders of record on November 27.
Valuation assessments show a mixed picture. On November 10, the stock gained 3.0% to reach $313.57. GuruFocus evaluated the stock at an estimated fair value of $309.13, citing an overvaluation of 1.4% and noting that insiders had sold $18.3 million in company shares over the preceding 12 months with no recorded insider purchases.