Northrop Grumman Corp.

1840 Century Park East

Year founded: 1939

Industry: Aerospace/defense

Post 200 Category: Top Companies Headquartered Outside Region

Revenue: $29.85 Billion

Net Income/Loss: $1.08 Billion

Earnings per share: $2.97

Dividend: $0.89

Stockholder equity: $16.70 Billion

Auditor: Deloitte & Touche LLP

Stock: NOC

Assets: $33.36 Billion

Market capitalization: $20.24 Billion

52-week high: 58.15 12/7/2004

52-week low: 48.45 4/21/2004

Chairman and CEO: Ronald Sugar

Employees: 125400

Local employees: 19100

Description: Northrop Grumman, the nation's third-largest defense contractor, is one of the largest private employers in the Washington area. It continues to hire, particularly in information technology and missile defense. The company has several large contracts with the military to perform traditional defense-contractor work, such as building new ships, upgrading aging aircraft carriers and making unmanned drone planes.

Developments: In July, the Homeland Security Department agreed to pay the company as much as $175 million over three years to help develop and manage the new agency's personnel system. In August, Northrop snared part of a high-profile, $45 million contract to develop prototypes of anti-missile systems for commercial aircraft. In December, the firm was chosen for a $244 million contract to provide biometric identification technology to British law enforcement agencies. Also in February, the company announced that it would acquire Chantilly-based Integic Corp., which makes software to help government agencies manage documents. Northrop had its share of disappointments. Twice, the firm was beat out by Lockheed Martin Corp. for huge projects: a $6 billion spy plane contract and a $5 billion deal to develop new military aircraft missiles. Nonethless, the company reported a sales increase in 2004 of 13 percent, to $29.9 billion, from $26.4 billion in 2003. And the company expects 2005 sales to rise still further, to as much as $31.5 billion. There are clouds in the distance. The Pentagon has announced plans to mothball an aircraft carrier earlier than planned, part of a broader program to rein in spending on large weapons systems. Ships are Northrop's bread and butter. More broadly, the Defense Department is looking to cut spending on some big-ticket hardware. Early last year, the company received some unwanted attention after the Government Accountability Office highlighted the escalating cost of one such weapons system, Northrop's unmanned surveillance aircraft, known as the Global Hawk. The program's overall cost has increased to $6.3 billion from $5.4 billion in 2001, while the number of aircraft the Air Force intends to buy has fallen.