Huntington Ingalls (HII) Moves 4.3% Higher: Will This Strength Last?

Huntington Ingalls (HII) shares soared 4.3% in the last trading session to close at $336.64. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 6.9% gain over the past four weeks.

On Dec. 19, 2025, HII announced that its Ingalls Shipbuilding unit was selected by the U.S. Navy to design and build the future small surface combatant ship. The ship will be based on the proven Legend-class national security cutter design developed by Ingalls. This program strengthens HII’s long-term naval shipbuilding portfolio and supports steady workload visibility for its Ingalls Shipbuilding operations. The announcement improved confidence in the market and raised investor demand for the stock.

Huntington Ingalls remains a key industrial employer in Virginia and plays a central role in U.S. naval shipbuilding. It is the only company that designs and builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the United States, and more than 70% of the active U.S. Navy fleet is made up of its ships.

This shipbuilder is expected to post quarterly earnings of $3.75 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +19.1%. Revenues are expected to be $3.05 billion, up 1.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Huntington Ingalls, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised marginally higher over the last 30 days to the current level. And a positive trend in earnings estimate revision usually translates into price appreciation. So, make sure to keep an eye on HII going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Huntington Ingalls belongs to the Zacks Aerospace - Defense industry. Another stock from the same industry, General Dynamics (GD), closed the last trading session 0.6% higher at $339.36. Over the past month, GD has returned -0.6%.

General Dynamics' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $4.11. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -1%. General Dynamics currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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

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