Is it Still Safe to Invest in Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC)?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the strategy underperformed its Russell 1000 Value benchmark Index. The second quarter was highly volatile due to changes in interest rates, fears of recession, and the war. The health care and real estate sectors contributed positively to the fund’s performance, whereas the financials, IT, and industrials sectors underperformed. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2022, please check its top five holdings.

The strategy discussed stocks like Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC). Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) is an aerospace and defense company based in Falls Church, Virginia, and has a market capitalization of $73.291 billion. The stock of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) closed at $473.73 per share on August 9, 2022. One-month return of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) rose to 1.83%, and its 12-month return jumped to 29.40%.

Here’s how ClearBridge Investments mentioned Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) in the Q2, 2022 investor letter:

“Strength continued for Raytheon Technologies (RTX) and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC); the war in Ukraine has underscored the need for defense spending and it remains at the forefront of geopolitics with broad and potentially lasting macroeconomic implications including energy and food security. European reliance on Russian natural gas is being dealt with as we speak but will take years to achieve independence; in the meantime high energy costs are pressuring economic growth in Europe, including Germany, one of its economic engines. Nor is the war the only source of geopolitical risk. Concerns of slower growth out of China, where zero COVID-19 policy lockdowns have only recently been lifted, may one day be surpassed by geopolitical risks such as growing tensions with Taiwan, where much of the world’s semiconductors are manufactured.”

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Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) is not on the list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) was held by 39 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter, which was 33 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) in another article and shared LRT Capital Management’s views about the company. You can check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other prominent investors.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.