CluenexHuntington Ingalls Industries HII
Huntington Ingalls Industries scores weak on business quality (4.2 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Huntington Ingalls Industries does
Huntington Ingalls Industries designs and builds nuclear-powered ships and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. The company generates revenue primarily through massive, multi-year shipbuilding contracts and defense technology services.Management is expanding its footprint in defense tech by promoting new leadership at its Mission Technologies division to capture shifting federal spending priorities.
- What it does best
HII is unmatched in building nuclear aircraft carriers, holding a literal monopoly on U.S. Navy carrier construction. This creates an insurmountable moat backed by defense infrastructure that takes decades to replicate. Its gross margin of 12.4% trails peer FTAI at 39.2%, reflecting heavy industrial manufacturing costs.
- The main risk
Labor shortages and shipyard capacity constraints threaten delivery schedules on multi-billion dollar naval contracts. When worker retention slips, ship delivery timelines stretch out, inflating costs and eating away at fixed-price contract margins.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin sits at 4.9% while free cash flow margin sits in the bottom quartile of its sector at 4%. High capital expenditures and manufacturing costs compress margins, showing that scale does not easily translate into higher profitability.
The federal government acts as its sole, deeply entrenched customer, protected by regulatory barriers and national security requirements. Its gross margin ranks in the bottom quartile of its sector at 3%, reflecting heavy manufacturing overhead.
Revenue grew at an 8.2% rate to reach $13.2 billion, showing steady top-line expansion compared to prior years.
Total debt sits at $2.7 billion with interest coverage at 6.6x, keeping debt servicing manageable. Free cash flow dropped to negative $85 million following $432 million in capex, turning the cash profile softer.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
1 sold $241K outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on HII
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Huntington Ingalls Industries scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (4.2 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat weak, growth steady and financial health fair.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 1 sold $241K outside pre-planned sales.
Oct 29, 2026, before the open.
See HII today
- Today's verdict on HII, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/hii/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.