Investing in defense stocks requires that you keep track of a lot of moving parts.
Earnings reports and past stock performance are good to know, for sure. But if you want to know which defense stocks will do best in the future, it pays to follow contract announcements as they happen. This is because, in the fullness of time, those contracts will be added to order backlog ... which will transform into revenues as deliveries are made ... which will in turn filter down to profits on the corporate bottom line.
To help you keep track of which defense companies are winning work -- and how much business they're winning -- here at the Motley Fool we keep a close eye on defense contract news every day of the work-week. This week in particular, there have been several notable deals you should be aware of.