Curtiss-Wright Rewards Shareholders with $200M Repurchase Program Boost

Curtiss-Wright Corporation CW recently announced a $200 million expansion in its 2025 share repurchase program, bringing the expected total repurchases for the year to more than $450 million. Following such a shareholder-friendly announcement, investors may be attracted to add this stock to their portfolio.

The company will execute this expansion immediately, while continuing its ongoing $60 million buyback initiative launched in January 2025. Once both programs are completed, Curtiss-Wright will still have $134 million of authorized share repurchases remaining, reflecting a strong commitment to returning capital to its shareholders.

What’s Favoring CW Stock?

For a defense contractor like Curtiss-Wright, factors such as steady order inflow culminating in a solid backlog and thereby resulting in positive revenue growth and cash flow generation play vital roles in enabling it to duly reward its shareholders with a notable share repurchase program. The latest expansion news reflects that.

To this end, it is imperative to mention that with its product line being well-positioned in high-priority categories, such as defense, commercial aerospace and industrial markets, Curtiss-Wright has been able to secure steady order inflows in the recent past. These orders translated into solid year-over-year revenue growth of 11.7% for CW in the second quarter of 2025.

CW’s free cash flow totaled $117 million during the first six months of 2025, which came in 17% higher than the year-ago period’s free cash flow count.

Such solid cash flow generation must have enabled the company to decide on further expansion of its share repurchase program.

Is CW’s Share Repurchase Program Sustainable?

As of June 30, 2025, CW had a solid backlog worth $3.9 billion. Of this backlog, the company expects to recognize approximately 90% as revenues over the next 36 months, with the remainder to be recognized thereafter.

Such a solid backlog count, backed by the increasing demand for the company’s defense products and rising global defense budget, should duly translate into strong revenue growth. This, in turn, can be expected to continue to boost CW’s financial strength, thereby enabling it to continue offering notable shareholder value with significant share buybacks and even indulge in the expansion of such buybacks in times of a business boom.

Other Defense Stocks in Focus

Other defense companies that have also enhanced their shareholder value by increasing share repurchase programs are discussed below.

General Dynamics Corporation GD: In December 2024, General Dynamics’ board of directors authorized the repurchase of an additional 10 million shares of its outstanding common stock, thereby expanding the scope of its ongoing share repurchase program.

GD has a long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate of 10.7%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GD’s 2025 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 7.2%.

Northrop Grumman Corporation NOC: In December 2024, Northrop Grumman’s board of directors approved a $3 billion expansion of its share repurchase program, raising the total outstanding amount available for repurchase to approximately $4.2 billion.

NOC has a long-term earnings growth rate of 3.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NOC’s 2025 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 2.7%.

Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT: In October 2024, Lockheed Martin’s board of directors authorized an increase of $3 billion to its share repurchase program, thereby increasing the total authorization of the current program to $10.3 billion for future purchases.

LMT has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10.3%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LMT’s 2025 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 4.5%.

CW Stock’s Price Movement

Shares of CW have gained 62.3% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 25.8% growth.

Zacks Rank

CW currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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