General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 24, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Nicole Shelton - VP, IR

Jason Aiken - EVP and CFO

Phebe Novakovic - Chairman and CEO

Conference Call Participants

Myles Walton - Wolfe Research

Ron Epstein - Bank of America

Jason Gursky - Citigroup

Davis Strauss - Barclays

Sheila Kahyaoglu - Jefferies

Seth Seifman - JP Morgan

Noah Poponak - Goldman Sachs

Cai von Rumohr - TD Cowen

George Shapiro - Shapiro Research

Robert Spingarn - Melius Research

Peter Arment - Baird

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the General Dynamics Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call.

All participants will be in listen-only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator instructions] I'd now like to turn the conference over to Nicole Shelton, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Nicole Shelton

Thank you, operator, and good morning everyone. Welcome to the General Dynamics fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call.

Any forward-looking statements made today represent our estimates regarding the company’s outlook. These estimates are subject to some risks and uncertainties. Additional information regarding these factors is contained in the company’s 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings.

We will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. For additional disclosures about these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures, please see the press release and slides that accompany this webcast, which are available on the Investor Relations page of our website, investorrelations.gd.com.

On the call today are Phebe Novakovic, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Jason Aiken, Executive Vice President, Technologies and Chief Financial Officer.

With the introductions complete, I’ll turn the call over to Phebe.

Phebe Novakovic

Thank you, Nicole. Good morning, everyone and thanks for being with us. Earlier this morning, we reported earnings of $3.64 per diluted share on revenue of $11,668,000,000, operating earnings of $1,288,000,000, and net earnings of $1,000,000,000. Revenue is up $817 million, a strong 7.5% against the fourth quarter last year. Operating earnings are up $61 million, and earnings per share are up $0.06, or 1.7%. The year-ago quarter had $52 million more of other net income, which helps explain the more modest earnings per share growth.

In short, the quarter-over-quarter results compare quite favourably, particularly revenue and operating earnings. The sequential results are even better. Here, we beat last quarter's revenue by $1,097,000, a very strong 10.4%, operating earnings by $231 million, or 21.9%, net earnings by $169 million or 20.2%, and EPS by $0.60, a 19.7% improvement.