BAE Systems’ impressive financials were only as good as investors have come to expect

BAE Systems (LSE:BA) shares were down, closing nearly 1% lower, despite this morning reporting a 13% increase in revenue for the first half of the year, to a total of £13.4 billion.

At the same time the UK’s leading aerospace engineer upgraded its full-year guidance for sales growth to 12-14%, up from the previous estimate of 10-12%, and, similarly, BAE lifted its profit growth forecast to 12-14%, up from 11-13%.

BAE’s interim dividend was increased 8% to 12.4p per share.

The company pointed to increased demand for its products amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, as well as a boost from its strategic acquisition of Ball Aerospace which completed in February to expand the company’s capabilities in the space sector.

Order intake was said to have reached £15.1 billion in the quarter, taking its total order backlog to a company record of some £74.1 billion.

Whilst on the face of it, the results were impressive – it’s the sort of impressive the market has come to expect from BAE in the current climate of increasing defence spending, and as such was pretty much “in-line with expectations” according to market commentators.

Chief executive Charles Woodburn, meanwhile, commented: “we delivered a strong operational and financial performance in the first half of the year, giving us confidence to increase our year-end guidance across all our key metrics."

In London, BAE shares closed 0.93% lower at 1,285p.