“We are also reaffirming our full year 2023 financial outlook for sales, profit, EPS and free cash flow.”

In context

“de additional detail before taking your questions. Starting on Page 3 of the slides. Sales increased 2% year-over-year to $16.9 billion and backlog remains at historically high levels at $156 million. EPS of $6.73 exceeded prior year and free cash flow was a strong $2.5 billion. We returned approximately 100% of free cash flow to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter. Earlier in October, we announced a $0.15 increase in our dividend which reflects 5% growth and is the 21st consecutive year of dividend increases for Lockheed Martin. At the same time, our Board also approved a $6 billion increase in our share repurchase authorization, bringing our total authorization to $13 billion, reconfirming our continued commitment to returning capital to shareholders. We are also reaffirming our full year 2023 financial outlook for sales, profit, EPS and free cash flow. Given the current status of the 2024 U.S. defense budget, global geopolitical tensions and the macroeconomic environment, we will provide our expectations for our 2024 financial outlook during our full year 2023 earnings call in January. On the U.S. budget, though the specific trajectory of the future U.S. defense budget is still in process between the administration and Congress, the global threat landscape is increasingly elevated. Our robust backlog reflects the relevance and importance of the Lockheed Martin portfolio and elevating deterrence to great power conflict involving the United States and its allies and the solid positioning of our business to serve our domestic and international customers. From a process standpoint and government, the current continuing resolution or CR is i”