NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP /DE/
For the period ended Dec 31, 2025. Filed Jan 27, 2026.
View on SEC.govAbout this filing
A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.
FY2025 · Filed Jan 27, 2026
Extracted filing text, with the paragraph anchors used by the comparison.
See the whole filing, with its images and exhibitsContents
Liquidity and Capital Resources
We are focused on the efficient conversion of operating income into cash to provide for the company’s material cash requirements, including working capital needs, satisfaction of contractual commitments, investment in our business through capital expenditures, funding of our pension and OPB plans, and shareholder returns.
As of December 31, 2025, we had cash and cash equivalents of $4.4 billion; $265 million was held outside of the U.S. by foreign subsidiaries. We expect cash and cash equivalents and cash generated from operating activities, supplemented by borrowings under credit facilities, commercial paper and/or in the capital markets through our shelf registration with the SEC, if needed, to be sufficient to provide liquidity to the company in the short-term and long-term. The company has a five-year senior unsecured credit facility in an aggregate principal amount of $3.0 billion, and in April 2025, we renewed our one-year $500 million uncommitted credit facility. At December 31, 2025, there were no borrowings outstanding under these credit facilities. In May 2025, we issued $1.0 billion of unsecured senior notes for general corporate purposes, including debt repayment, share repurchases and working capital.
The company’s principal contractual commitments include purchase obligations, repayments of long-term debt and related interest, and payments under operating leases. At December 31, 2025, we had $23.9 billion of purchase obligations, approximately half of which are short-term. Purchase obligations are largely comprised of open purchase order commitments to suppliers and subcontractors under U.S. government contracts. In most circumstances, our risk associated with the purchase obligations on our U.S. government contracts is limited by the termination liability provisions within those contracts. As such, we do not believe they represent a material liquidity risk to the company. At December 31, 2025, we had capital expenditure commitments of $1.6 billion, which we expect to satisfy with cash on hand. We also had provisions for uncertain tax positions of $1.6 billion, some or all of which could result in future cash payments to various taxing authorities. At this time, we are unable to estimate the timing and amount of any future cash outflows related to these uncertain tax positions.
Refer to the respective notes to the consolidated financial statements for further information about our share repurchase programs (Note 2), commercial paper, credit facilities and long-term debt (Note 9), standby letters of credit and guarantees (Note 11), future minimum contributions for the company’s pension and OPB plans (Note 12), and lease payment obligations (Note 14).
-38-
Cash Flow Measures
In addition to our cash position, we consider various cash flow measures in capital deployment decision-making, including cash provided by operating activities and free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure described in more detail below.
Operating Cash Flow
The table below summarizes key components of cash provided by operating activities:
| $ in millions | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net earnings | $4,182 | $4,174 | $2,056 |
| Changes in trade working capital(1) | (100) | (29) | 199 |
| Other, net | 675 | 243 | 1,620 |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $4,757 | $4,388 | $3,875 |
(1)Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025, the company redefined trade working capital presented in this table to include accounts receivable, unbilled receivables, inventoried costs, trade accounts payable and advance payments and billings in excess of costs incurred. Prior period amounts and disclosures have been recast to conform to current period presentation.
2025 cash provided by operating activities increased $369 million, or 8 percent, primarily due to $149 million of lower net cash tax payments and improvements in trade working capital.
2024 cash provided by operating activities increased $513 million, or 13 percent, driven by $355 million lower net cash tax payments.
Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow, as reconciled in the table below, is a non-GAAP measure defined as net cash provided by or used in operating activities less capital expenditures. This measure may not be defined and calculated by other companies in the same manner. We use free cash flow as a key factor in our planning for, and consideration of, acquisitions, the payment of dividends and stock repurchases. This non-GAAP measure may be useful to investors and other users of our financial statements as a supplemental measure of our cash performance, but should not be considered in isolation, as a measure of residual cash flow available for discretionary purposes, or as an alternative to operating cash flows presented in accordance with GAAP.
The table below reconciles net cash provided by operating activities to free cash flow:
| Year Ended December 31 · % Change in | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $ in millions | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2025 | 2024 |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $4,757 | $4,388 | $3,875 | 8% | 13% |
| Capital expenditures | (1,450) | (1,767) | (1,775) | (18)% | —% |
| Free cash flow | $3,307 | $2,621 | $2,100 | 26% | 25% |
2025 free cash flow increased $686 million, or 26 percent, due to higher net cash provided by operating activities as well as lower capital expenditures.
Investing Cash Flow
2025 net cash used in investing activities decreased $594 million as compared with 2024, principally due to $333 million in proceeds from the sale of the training services business and $317 million of lower capital expenditures.
Financing Cash Flow
2025 net cash used in financing activities increased $2.2 billion as compared with 2024, primarily due to a $3.0 billion net decrease in cash from long-term debt, partially offset by a $890 million decrease in share repurchases. Cash returned to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends totaled $2.9 billion in 2025 and $3.7 billion in 2024.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.