Are Wall Street Analysts Bullish on Huntington Ingalls Stock?

Are Wall Street Analysts Bullish on Huntington Ingalls Stock?

Fri, August 28, 2026 at 8:58 AM GMT+3 3 min read

With a market cap of $11.7 billion, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII) is America's largest shipbuilder, providing advanced naval vessels, unmanned systems and mission technologies to U.S. and allied defense customers. With more than 140 years of experience and a workforce of 45,000, the Virginia-based company supports national security across shipbuilding, C6ISR, AI/ML, electronic warfare and synthetic training.

Shares of the Newport News, Virginia-based company have lagged behind the broader market over the past 52 weeks. HII stock has risen 7.6% over this time frame, while the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has returned 19.3%. Moreover, shares of the company are down 12.6% on a YTD basis, compared to SPX's 12.9% rise.

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Focusing more closely, the defense contractor stock has underperformed the State Street Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF's (XLI) 16.8% increase over the past 52 weeks.

Huntington Ingalls has underperformed over the past year as investors have remained concerned about shipyard execution challenges, labor shortages, supply-chain pressures, and the profitability of legacy contracts, despite improving operations. Uncertainty around U.S. defense priorities and future naval budgets, combined with heavy investment needs and limited near-term growth, has also weighed on sentiment.

However, the stock surged 14.1% on Jul. 30 after better-than-expected Q2 2026 revenue rose 10.9% to $3.42 billion and EPS of $5.27. The strong results reflected higher volumes at Newport News and Ingalls, with revenue up 15.3% and 16.7%, respectively, while new contract awards of $6.7 billion lifted backlog to $57.3 billion. Investor confidence was further boosted by higher fiscal 2026 shipbuilding revenue guidance of $10.2 billion - $10.4 billion and an increase in the low end of the shipbuilding operating-margin outlook to 6%.

For the fiscal year ending in December 2026, analysts expect Huntington Ingalls' EPS to grow 20% year-over-year to $18.47. The company's earnings surprise history is promising. It topped the consensus estimates in each of the last four quarters.

Among the 13 analysts covering the stock, the consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy." That's based on six "Strong Buy" ratings and seven "Holds."

This configuration is slightly more bullish than three months ago, with five "Strong Buy" ratings on the stock.

On Aug. 25, Bernstein SocGen Group increased its price target on Huntington Ingalls to $341 and maintained a "Market Perform" rating.

The mean price target of $356 represents a 19.7% premium to HII's current price levels. The Street-high price target of $441 suggests a 48.3% potential upside.

On the date of publication, Sohini Mondal did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com