News & Editorials
Lockheed Martin Profit Falls
News Summary

In a January 29, 2000 Washington Post story, "Lockheed Profit Slips, But Finances Improve," (p. E-1), Greg Schneider reports "that Lockheed Martin Corp. surprised no one yesterday by reporting a 20 percent drop in profit from fourth-quarter operations compared with the year before, but it also took the unexpected step of lowering its quarterly dividend by half, to 11 cents." The story also concluded that CFO Robert Stevens' forecasts for future earnings "continue to rely on several uncertain events," including the corporation's "clearance from Congress to complete its acquisition of Comsat Corp."

The January 29, 2000 Baltimore Sun (p. 12-C), in a story by business reporter Sean Somerville and headlined, "Defense giant halves payout," similarly reported that "[t]he company said its Comsat Corp. acquisition and joint ventures had boosted its debt to capitalization ratio to 64 percent at the end of the year."