FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) _ Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings of $1.04 billion.

The Falls Church, Virginia-based company said it had profit of $6.42 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $5.75 per share.

The defense contractor posted revenue of $9.15 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $8.71 billion.

Northrop Grumman expects full-year earnings in the range of $24.40 to $24.80 per share, with revenue in the range of $35.8 billion to $36.2 billion.

Northrop Grumman shares have climbed 18% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has increased 17%. The stock has risen 15% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on NOC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NOC

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