Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW) Reports Bullish Q1, Full-Year Outlook Slightly Exceeds Expectations

Aerospace and defense company Curtiss-Wright (NYSE: CW) reported Q1 CY2025 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 13% year on year to $805.6 million. The company’s full-year revenue guidance of $3.39 billion at the midpoint came in 0.9% above analysts’ estimates. Its GAAP profit of $2.68 per share was 13.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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"I’m proud of our team’s outstanding first quarter 2025 performance as we delivered significant increases in new orders, sales, operating income and diluted EPS, and continued to execute on our Pivot to Growth strategy," said Lynn M. Bamford, Chair and CEO.

Company Overview

Formed from a merger of 12 companies, Curtiss-Wright (NYSE: CW) provides a range of products and services to the aerospace, industrial, electronic, and maritime industries.

Sales Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Regrettably, Curtiss-Wright’s sales grew at a tepid 5.1% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This wasn’t a great result compared to the rest of the industrials sector, but there are still things to like about Curtiss-Wright.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Curtiss-Wright’s annualized revenue growth of 10.6% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand recently accelerated.

Curtiss-Wright also breaks out the revenue for its most important segments, Product and Services, which are 84.3% and 15.7% of revenue. Over the last two years, Curtiss-Wright’s Product revenue (aerospace & defense technology) averaged 11.4% year-on-year growth while its Services revenue (testing, maintenance, consulting) averaged 8% growth.

This quarter, Curtiss-Wright reported year-on-year revenue growth of 13%, and its $805.6 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 5%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.8% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. This projection doesn't excite us and indicates its products and services will see some demand headwinds. At least the company is tracking well in other measures of financial health.

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Operating Margin

Curtiss-Wright has been a well-oiled machine over the last five years. It demonstrated elite profitability for an industrials business, boasting an average operating margin of 15.9%.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Curtiss-Wright’s operating margin rose by 4.7 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.

This quarter, Curtiss-Wright generated an operating profit margin of 16%, up 2 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Curtiss-Wright’s EPS grew at a decent 9.7% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 5.1% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into Curtiss-Wright’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Curtiss-Wright’s operating margin expanded by 4.7 percentage points over the last five years. On top of that, its share count shrank by 11.5%. These are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Curtiss-Wright, its two-year annual EPS growth of 18.3% was higher than its five-year trend. This acceleration made it one of the faster-growing industrials companies in recent history.

In Q1, Curtiss-Wright reported EPS at $2.68, up from $1.99 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Curtiss-Wright’s full-year EPS of $11.24 to grow 10.7%.

Key Takeaways from Curtiss-Wright’s Q1 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Curtiss-Wright blew past analysts’ revenue and EPS expectations this quarter. We were also glad it raised its full-year guidance for both metrics. Zooming out, we think this was a good print with some key areas of upside. The stock traded up 2.1% to $370 immediately after reporting.

Sure, Curtiss-Wright had a solid quarter, but if we look at the bigger picture, is this stock a buy? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.