Defense giant Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) closed out last week with a 5% gain after reporting third-quarter earnings Thursday morning. But there's only one reason why Northrop stock scored any gains whatsoever: space .
You see, Northrop's numbers last week weren't exactly great. Overall, sales grew 3% year over year to an even $9 billion. Earnings, however, declined 11% year over year to just $5.89 per share, yielding what stock market experts like to call a "mixed quarter" -- one number up, the other down.
And when broken into component parts, even Northrop's "up" number was mostly down:
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This 1 Division of Northrop Grumman Is Leading the Charge. Is the Stock a Buy?