Northrop Grumman Crushes on Earnings. Investors Cheer -- Then Jeer

Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) reported its fiscal Q3 2017 earnings on Wednesday, and the headline numbers, at least, were pretty terrific. Expected to report $2.92 per share in profit, Northrop instead delivered $3.68. Sales similarly surpassed expectations for $6.32 billion, coming in instead at $6.53 billion.

As you'd expect, investors were pretty pleased with the results, bidding Northrop Grumman shares up by more than 3% on the day earnings were released. Within just 24 hours, however, investors rethought their enthusiasm and took back more than half those gains. As of this writing, Northrop Grumman stock sells for $298 a share -- just 1.4% above its pre-earnings price.

Want to know why? Let's start with a quick review of the numbers.

Source: Fool.com