With the YoYo day to day fluctuation in prices...do you think LMT is
still a good buy today...   NEW YORK (AP) -- A Banc of America analyst
on Monday upgraded Lockheed Martin Corp., saying the defense
contractor is undervalued given the company's high quality. Robert
Stallard, in a client note, upgraded the stock to "Buy" from
"Neutral," noting a recent sell-off in shares of big defense
companies. Shares of Lockheed Martin are off about 8 percent in the
past couple of weeks, the analyst wrote.
"We consider this to be one of the highest quality companies in the
sector, with minimal exposure to a potential Iraq withdrawal," he
wrote, raising his target price to $110 from $109. Sales related to
Iraq represent just 1 percent of Lockheed Martin's total sales, wrote
Stallard. The analyst said Lockheed Martin is now priced below its
peers, while it deserves to be priced above other stocks in its
sector. "Its strong earnings-per-share growth, cash flow, market share
gains and management have seen Lockheed Martin enjoy a premium
valuation versus its peers, averaging six percent over the last five
years," the analyst wrote. Shares closed at $94.31 Friday.

My gut feeling is still - around 90$ a good buy. I would like to chip
in with the following consideration/question though: I've been trying
to buy stocks over the long term and for some reason or another I
think that a lot of our future business will be done in space
(grantedly we haven't had significant breakthroughs as of late, but
I'm very keen on space/going to the moon/building a base there/manned
mission to mars/beyond the solar system - that kind of stuff, so I
guess even if we manage to not do anything significant with regrad to
space exploration in the next, I don't know, 25 years - for me its
worth the gamble). Anyways in light of this I've been searching for
companies that would stand to gain in this respect and aren't exactly,
well, small. As far as I've been able to discern a significant, though
not everwhelming, part of Lockheeds earnigns/profits (hopefully at
least one of the two:) comes from this sphere and I've been wondering
what you think as far as future prospects in this segment go for
Lockheed? I think I read somewhere that right now Boeing is NASA's
largest contractor and I think LMT is second. Do you think LMT can do
even better - they're building Orion I think. Would very much
appreciate any comments.