{"id":5039,"date":"2026-06-04T15:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/?p=5039"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:21:01","slug":"rtx-stock-rises-4-after-jefferies-upgrade-lifts-target-to-220","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/?p=5039","title":{"rendered":"RTX stock rises 4% after Jefferies upgrade, lifts target to $220"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shares of RTX Corp. rose on Thursday after Jefferies upgraded the aerospace and defense company to Buy from Hold and raised its price target to $220 from $210.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wall Street firm cited improving profit margins, growth opportunities in the commercial aerospace engine aftermarket, and the strength of RTX&#8217;s defense business as key drivers behind its more optimistic outlook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RTX stock gained 4.4% in trading to reach an intraday high of $180.42.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Margin expansion and aerospace growth support outlook<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu raised the firm&#8217;s earnings per share estimates for 2026 through 2028 by roughly 5% on average. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The brokerage expects operational improvements at Collins Aerospace, pricing gains in Pratt &amp; Whitney original equipment, and returns from the geared turbofan (GTF) aftermarket business to drive higher profitability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Explaining the upgrade, Kahyaoglu wrote: \u201cRTX is home to leading franchises across Aerospace and Defense, with meaningful growth runway from marquee competitive positions and market growth [and defense] budget support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She also projects RTX could generate earnings per share of $10.45 by 2028, well above Wall Street&#8217;s current consensus estimate of $8.40, according to FactSet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company reported an operating profit margin of about 11.5% in 2025. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jefferies believes that figure could improve to between 14% and 15% by 2028 as margins expand across its commercial operations and the company continues share repurchases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The brokerage values RTX at 18.5 times projected 2027 EBITDA and estimates the stock offers a 3.6% free cash flow yield.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Defense business remains a key growth driver<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jefferies expects RTX&#8217;s defense operations to remain a major contributor to future growth. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The firm estimates that approximately 75% of Raytheon&#8217;s business is tied to sensors and effectors, a market it expects to grow at an 8% compound annual growth rate through 2030.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the brokerage, the defense segment could achieve operating margins of 14% or higher, comparable to Lockheed Martin&#8217;s Missiles and Fire Control division. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The outlook is supported by favorable US Department of Defense spending and international demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RTX has also secured several significant defense contracts in recent months. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Raytheon, one of the company&#8217;s business units, received a $1.02 billion contract from the US Department of War to supply NASAMS fire units under the fiscal 2026 Foreign Military Sales program for Kuwait.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Separately, Raytheon won a $515 million US Navy contract for its SPY-6 family of radars, including upgrades for Flight IIA destroyers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company, together with Northrop Grumman, was also awarded a phase two contract from DARPA for the Burn n&#8217; Go advanced rocket motor program.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strong cash generation and shareholder returns<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jefferies projects RTX will generate more than $9 billion in discretionary free cash flow over the next three years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company has maintained dividend payments for 56 consecutive years and currently offers a dividend yield of 1.69%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, RTX&#8217;s BBN Technologies division recently demonstrated a self-healing communications system for military networks under a program funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">S&amp;P Global Ratings also revised its outlook on RTX to positive from stable while affirming the company&#8217;s BBB+ issuer credit rating, citing strong demand for its defense products and commercial aerospace offerings, including engines for the Airbus A320 family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Jefferies upgrade adds to already strong analyst support for the stock. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Approximately 74% of analysts covering RTX currently rate the shares a Buy, above the typical 55% to 60% Buy-rating ratio for S&amp;P 500 companies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\/news\/2026\/06\/04\/rtx-stock-rises-4-after-jefferies-upgrade-lifts-target-to-220\/\">RTX stock rises 4% after Jefferies upgrade, lifts target to $220<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\">Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shares of RTX Corp. rose on Thursday after Jefferies upgraded the aerospace and defense company to Buy from Hold and raised its price target to $220 from $210.The Wall Street firm cited improving profit margins, growth opportunities in the commercial aerospace engine aftermarket, and the strength of RTX&#8217;s defense business as key drivers behind its&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}