Q3 2024 L3Harris Technologies Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Daniel Gittsovich; Vice President, Investor Relations; L3Harris Technologies Inc

Christopher Kubasik; Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; L3Harris Technologies Inc

Kenneth Bedingfield; Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President; L3Harris Technologies Inc

Sheila Kahyaoglu; Analyst; Jefferies

Myles Walton; Analyst; Wolfe Research

Richard Safran; Analyst; Seaport Global Securities LLC

Doug Harned; Analyst; BERNSTEIN

Matt Akers; Analyst; Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

David Strauss; Analyst; Barclays

Michael Ciarmoli; Analyst; Truist Securities

Gautam Khanna; Analyst; TD Cowen

Pete Skibitski; Analyst; Alembic Global Advisors

Seth Seifman; Analyst; JPMorgan

Peter Arment; Analyst; Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.

Jeremy Jason; Analyst; Citi

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the L3Harris Technologies' third-quarter 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Also today's call is being recorded. And if you should need any operator assistance during the call today, please press star zero. Now at this time, I'll turn things over to Mr. Dan Gittsovich, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Daniel Gittsovich

Thank you, Bob. Good morning, and welcome to our third quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me this morning are Chris and Ken. Yesterday, we published our third quarter earnings release detailing our financial results and guidance. We've also provided a supplemental earnings presentation on our website.
Today's discussion will include certain matters that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For more information, please reference our earnings release and SEC filings. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to GAAP measures in the earnings release. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris for some opening remarks.

Christopher Kubasik

Good morning, everyone, and thanks, Dan. We had a very strong quarter, and our strategy is delivering results. We achieved record order volume, an impressive book-to-bill, robust segment operating margins and solid free cash flow. We're proud of the progress we've made so far this year and are confident that we are on track to deliver on the commitments we made to our stakeholders. Our customers tell us that we're agile, fast, and fully aligned with their priorities.
This empowers us to deliver the right capabilities at the right time, meeting the evolving needs of our nation and its allies. Our business model enables us to operate as either a prime, a sub or a merchant supplier, offering commercial pricing or utilizing the traditional government acquisition approach. This flexibility in our platform-agnostic approach gives us a unique advantage in rapidly adapting to the changing threat environment and addressing our customers' mission-critical needs. It also enables us to effectively partner with new entrants and nontraditional contractors. We've made key acquisitions, including Aerojet Rocketdyne and tactical data links while simultaneously divesting noncore assets.
These moves have allowed us to further hone our portfolio to reinforce our national security focus. Our capabilities in areas like resilient communications, munition space, ISR, and passive sensing are innovative, allowing us to deliver solutions across all domains and providing our customers with superiority across the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum. Our diversified portfolio limits our reliance on a single program, enabling steady growth with lower variability and a greater ability to manage risk over the long term. Partnerships are a hallmark of our trusted disruptor strategy. On Wednesday, we announced a strategic partnership with Palantir working together to deliver advanced solutions to our customers.
In fact, yesterday, the White House ordered the Pentagon and the Intel agencies to increase the use of AI. So I feel we're well positioned in this evolving market. We continue to focus on profitable growth. This approach allows us to grow while delivering sustained margin improvement, which will drive financial outperformance.
Growth for growth's sake is not our strategy. We prioritize profitable growth that drives appropriate returns and cash generation. Our strategy to act as a sub or merchant supplier also enables us to participate in key strategic programs even when we choose not to prime. I'm pleased to report that we've made considerable progress on our innovative LHX NeXt program to transform L3Harris and how we operate. Ken, would you like to elaborate?