Lockheed Martin saved by civilian agencies in 2010

The large government contractor Lockheed Martin saw profits in its Information Systems and Global Solutions fall due to weakened defense and intelligence sales.

Lockheed Martin Corp. today said that business from civilian agencies kept its IT solutions segment’s profits from falling more than 1 percent last year.

The giant government contractor saw profits in its Information Systems and Global Solutions (IS&GS) business fall by $5 million, from $895 million in 2009 to $890 million in 2010. Last year, profits from business with the defense-related agencies declined $27 million due primarily to decreases in the level of favorable performance adjustments on mission and combat systems, the company said.

Meanwhile, Lockheed saw a $19 million increase in profits from civilian agencies because of higher volume on enterprise civilian services. Business in the area of intelligence didn’t change.

Overall sales for IS&GS increased compared to 2009. The segment’s net sales grew from $9.60 billion in 2009 to $9.95 billion in 2010, a 4-percent increase.

Business in the civilian and defense areas also increased in 2010. The civilian sector had a $437 million increase due to more enterprise civilian services, and sales grew by $20 million in the defense arena thanks to more work on mission and combat systems.

However, intelligence programs sales declined by $106 million as agencies bought fewer security solutions.

As a whole, Lockheed Martin increased its overall company sales by 4 percent for 2010. Sales rose from $44 billion in 2009 to $45.8 billion in 2010.

As the year ended, the company had $78.2 billion in backlog work, with $20.5 billion in fourth-quarter orders.

“For the year, sales and backlog grew," said Bob Stevens, Lockheed chairman and CEO, in the earnings announcement. "Combined with strong cash flow, I believe it was very solid performance in a very demanding year."

Officials say they expect more growth in 2011, forecasting between $45.8 billion and $47.3 billion in net sales in 2011.

Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Md., ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology’s 2009 and 2010 Top 100 lists of the largest federal government contractors.