Easy come, easy go -- that's how one might describe Wall Street's reaction to Northrop Grumman's (NYSE: NOC) first-quarter earnings report.

Upon first consideration, investors reacted positively to Northrop's beating analyst consensus earnings on both the top and bottom lines. Northrop earned $5.50 per share on sales of $9.3 billion -- not the $5.09 on $9.2 billion that Wall Street had forecast. Northrop's stock price, accordingly, inched up 1% after earnings were announced and continued to drift higher the next day as well. Things quickly took a turn for the worse, however, and by the time markets closed for the week last Friday, Northrop had given up all its gains and was actually trading below what it cost before earnings came out: $446.81.    

But should it have?

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Source Fool.com