In this article, we will discuss 5 best stocks that are on the rise. If you want to explore similar stocks, you can also read Stocks On The Rise: 12 Best To Buy Now.
5. Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT)
Year-to-Date Return as of November 4: 35.93%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 55
Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) is a top-tier aerospace and defense contractor with an impressive history of delivering shareholder value. On October 18, Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) announced earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2022. The company reported earnings per share of $6.87 and beat estimates by $0.16. The company generated a revenue of $15.58 billion for the quarter.
As of November 4, Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) is offering a forward dividend yield of 2.49% and has free cash flows of $8.55 billion. Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) is among the stocks that are on the rise and has returned 35.93% to investors so far in 2022, as of November 4.
On October 19, Baird analyst Peter Arment upgraded Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) to Outperform from Neutral and reiterated his price target of $513.
At the end of Q2 2022, Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) was a part of 55 hedge fund portfolios. These funds held stakes of $2.56 billion in the company, up from $2.44 billion in the preceding quarter with 56 positions.
As of June 30, GQG Partners is the largest investor in Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) and has a position worth $877.8 million in the company.
Here is what Vltava Fund had to say about Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) in its third-quarter 2022 investor letter:
“LMT is one of the world’s largest aerospace and defence companies. The war in Ukraine has reminded investors and the wider public just how important these companies are. The aerospace and defence industry in the USA is an established oligopoly. This means that a few large firms play a dominant role. While collectively they comprise an oligopoly, individually they often have monopoly positions in particular narrower segments. Their main counterparty is the US government, a key customer in what is known as a monopsonist position. This is a rather unusual situation, but one that is very advantageous for companies such as LMT.
LMT has a strong and long-term sustainable competitive advantage ensuing from the fact that its products are developed and manufactured at an extremely high level of technology and complexity, its development and contract cycles are measured in decades, and the costs for the government to switch to alternative suppliers are high. Moreover, part of the production is classified as secret, which further takes the wind out of the sails of potential competitors. This results in a very high return on capital and admittedly a slowly but steadily growing business.
In most NATO countries, which are LMT’s customers, defence outlays are based upon the size of GDP. This is currently growing very fast in nominal terms due to inflation in most countries. A number of countries have also announced significant increases in defence budgets, whether it be Germany, which aims to get to the NATO-agreed 2% of GDP, or Poland, which wants to spend more than twice as much on defence…” (Click here to see the full text)
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