With missiles flying in the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, Raytheon parent RTX NYSE:RTX recently hit an all-time high as one of the primary contractors to design and manufacture such armaments for the American military. Let's see what the stock's chart and fundamentals show.
RTX's Fundamental Analysis
RTX rose 11.3% between its Feb. 25 session low just prior to the war's outbreak and its $214.50 all-time intraday high days later on March 3 as investors bid up defense-related stocks.
Yes, Boeing NYSE:BA , Northrop Grumman NYSE:NOC , L3 Harris NYSE:LHX , General Dynamics NYSE:GD and other defense firms are quite important as U.S. military contractors, but RTX and rival Lockheed Martin NYSE:LMT are key suppliers for missile systems.
Some of RTX's best-known weapons are the MIM-104 Patriot air-defense system, the FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, the SM-3 naval-defense interceptor and the BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile.
Other key systems that company makes are the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile and the StormBreaker smart bomb, which can strike targets accurately in any kind of weather from miles away. And this is just a sampling RTX's wares.
As for financials, the company will next report quarterly results around April 21, with the Street currently looking for $1.51 of adjusted earnings per share on $21.4 billion of revenue.
If accurate, that would represent a 2.7% gain from the $1.47 in adjusted EPS that the firm reported in the year-ago period, as well as about 5.4% in y/y revenue growth.
RTX's Technical Analysis
Now let's go to RTX's chart over the past four months and running through last Thursday afternoon (March 5):
Readers will see that RTX formed what had been a double-top pattern of bearish reversal ahead of the Mideast conflict's Feb. 27 outbreak.
This quickly evolved into a rectangle pattern, also known as a "basing period of consolidation." Marked with the tan box at the chart's right, this pattern had a $206 apparent pivot point.
However, RTX broke out beyond that pivot on March 2 -- the first trading day after the war began.
It's also key to note that the stock also found support right around then at its 50-day Simple Moving Average (or "SMA," denoted by a blue line). That implies a certain level of interest in RTX from professional money managers.
Looking at some other technical indicators, RTX's Relative Strength Index (or "RSI," marked with a gray line at the chart's top) has recently moved from a neutral reading to a better-than-neutral one. However, it's not anywhere close to a technically overbought state so far.
Meanwhile, RTX's daily Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator (or "MACD," denoted by blue bars and black and gold lines at the chart's bottom) is sending bullish signals.
The histogram of the stock's 9-day Exponential Moving Average (or "EMA," marked with blue bars) has now been above the zero-bound for several days. That's generally a short-term bullish signal.
In addition, RTX's 12-day EMA (the black line) has crossed above its 26-day EMA (gold line), with both in positive territory. That's a medium-term bullish technical signal.
RTX will next test the basing period's upper trendline for support after the stock's recent breakout.
An Options Option
Bullish options traders might use a bull-call spread ahead of RTX's earnings.
That's where you buy one call and sell another with a higher strike price, but the same expiration date. Here's an example:
-- Long one RTX call with an April 24 expiration date (i.e., after the upcoming earnings) and a strike price of $205 (i.e., near the above apparent pivot). This cost about $11.90 at recent prices.
-- Short one RTX April 24 $220 call for roughly a $5.35 credit.
Net Debit: $6.55.
These traders are risking the $6.55 net debit to try to bring in up to $15 at expiration, for an $8.45 maximum theoretical net profit. This would occur if RTX trades at or above $220 at expiration.
Conversely, these traders would realize a $6.55 maximum theoretical loss (i.e., the entire net debit) if RTX trades at or below $205 at expiration.
(Moomoo Technologies Inc. Markets Commentator Stephen "Sarge" Guilfoyle was long RTX at the time of writing this column.)
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