Curtiss-Wright raises on record orders and telegraphs the AP1000 order — but the stock is 20% off its peak

A 1.2x book-to-bill, a conditional $17.5B DOE loan for new reactors, and initial Golden Dome orders all point one way — yet at ~7x sales the market wants the AP1000 contract, not another guidance raise.

CW · Earnings Call · 2026-08-06

A record quarter — and the guidance goes up again

Curtiss-Wright delivered the kind of quarter that has become the norm since the pivot-to-growth strategy took hold: sales of $924M (+5%), operating income up 12%, diluted EPS +15%, and $160M of free cash flow at a 115% conversion. “Curtiss-Wright delivered excellent second quarter results that exceeded our expectations. We also raised our full year earnings guidance to reflect the strong first half results record backlog and the outlook for the balance of the year.” — Lynn Bamford, Chair and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-06 The raise took full-year EPS to $15.10–$15.40 and free cash flow to a record $585–605M. The engine under the beat is the order book. New orders rose 8% in Q2 and are up 12% year-to-date — a 1.2x book-to-bill — with Defense Electronics posting its strongest order quarter on record (+47% YoY) as the continuing-resolution logjam finally cleared and tactical-communications orders snapped back. CFO Chris Farkas framed the momentum explicitly as a multiyear signal: “And that all speaks very positively not only to this year, but then as we look outward into 2027 and beyond.” — K. Christopher Farkas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-06

The nuclear end-game is finally in sight

The clearest strategic change is commercial nuclear. The thematic groundwork was laid over prior quarters — management has repeatedly widened the AP1000 content story, and the messaging has been consistent. “the team is doing a really good job of increasing that incremental content... we are going to really add meaningful business on top of the RCPs to the content we have for AP1000 plant.” — Lynn Bamford, Chair and Chief Executive Officer · 2025-11-06 The Q2 call took it from aspirational to near-committed:

In June, the Department of Energy issued a conditional $17.5 billion loan commitment through its Office of Energy Dominant Financing to support the deployment of up to 10 new AP1 thousand reactors... We continue to expect an AP1 thousand order this year.
Lynn Bamford, Chair and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-06

Management even telegraphed a July customer visit as a proof point: “1 of the DOE's initial launch customers which we cannot name, visited our operation and they were overwhelmingly impressed with the quality of our critical manufacturing processes.” — Lynn Bamford, Chair and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-06 The Department of Energy commitment, maritime industrial-base (MIB) funding that has climbed to ~$95M (from ~$70M at the end of March), and an $80M expansion of the Chesapeake, Virginia facility all point the same direction: CW is positioning to be a scaled, second-source supplier to the U.S. naval-nuclear base and to Westinghouse's AP1000 build-out.

Golden Dome, industrial vehicles, and the order engine

The order surge is broad. Defense Electronics booked initial Golden Dome orders alongside numerous modernization awards across helicopter, UAV, and fighter-jet platforms, while turret-drive stabilization is ramping through Rheinmetall on international ground vehicles. That is consistent with what management signaled a year earlier: “we have been involved with that in that area with that program for several years and definitely see ourselves ramping with it.” — Lynn M. Bamford, Chair and Chief Executive Officer · 2025-08-09 It is also a theme the market is clearly voting on — Kratos and One Stop Systems both flagged Golden Dome / missile-system work in the same reporting window. After three years of headwinds, General Industrial / industrial vehicles has now grown orders three straight quarters (+21% YTD), and full-year guidance was nudged up to +1–3%, with management pointing at on-highway Class 5–8 strength and a 'strong July'. The company is spending into the ramp — R&D investment has compounded faster than sales for years and remains a stated priority even as guidance calls for 50–70bps of full-year margin expansion. The one soft spot is supply chain, where management is pulling 2022-era playbooks. “the supply chain pressures have definitely increased in the first half of this year... there are some similarities to back in 2022.” — Lynn Bamford, Chair and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-06 They cite assured Micron priority allocation and dual-sourcing around rare-earth compounds — a genuine watch item given the AI/data-center pull on memory and specialty materials.

The disconnect: record fundamentals, a 20% drawdown

Here is the tension. The company is raising guidance on record backlog with a first AP1000 order telegraphed for this calendar year — yet the equity is roughly 20% off its July 6 peak of $792.77, and down ~13% over the last 90 days even as operating results, margins, and backlogs hit records. The reason is visible in the multiples: the stock has re-rated to around 7x trailing sales (up ~87% year over year) while price-to-earnings sits near 49x. Margins have been the compounding story — operating margin has climbed roughly 8 points in eight years — but at these multiples, the market wants proof, not promises. The swing factor is the AP1000 order. If it lands in 2026 as telegraphed, it de-risks a decade-long nuclear growth phase that only partially exists in current guidance. If it slips — and the company has stressed it is 'not presumptive' about Westinghouse decisions — a 7x-sales, ~49x-earnings defense and nuclear supplier has a lot of air to give back. That asymmetry, record order flow and a visible strategic catalyst against an expensive tape, is the real story of this report.