RTX Stock In Focus After Trump Threatens Government Contract Withdrawal

• “Either Raytheon steps up, and starts investing in more upfront investment like plants and equipment, or they will no longer be doing business with the Department of War,” Trump said. 
• The president also highlighted that if the defense company wanted more government contracts, it would have to scale down on stock buybacks. 
• Trump further accused Raytheon of prioritizing shareholders' needs rather than the requirements of the United States Military.

Raytheon Technologies Corporation (RTX) shares were in focus after President Donald Trump cherry-picked the company for being slow with meeting America’s defense needs.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the company has been the least responsive to the needs of the U.S. Department of War and warned that its government contracts would be cut if the firm did not restrict stock buybacks.

“Either Raytheon steps up, and starts investing in more upfront investment like plants and equipment, or they will no longer be doing business with the Department of War,” Trump said.

Stock Buybacks

The president also highlighted that if the defense company wanted more government contracts, it would have to scale down on stock buybacks.

“Also, if Raytheon wants further business with the United States Government, under no circumstances will they be allowed to do any additional stock buybacks, where they have spent tens of billions of dollars, until they are able to get their act together,” he said in the post.

The president further accused Raytheon of prioritizing shareholders' needs rather than the requirements of the United States Military.

The post comes shortly after Trump said in an earlier post that he would not permit dividends or stock buybacks for defense companies as they take away from investments in producing new equipment as well as their maintenance. He also criticized the “exorbitant and unjustifiable” executive compensation packages in the defense industry.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around RTX stock remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours amid ‘extremely high’ message volume.

Shares of RTX gained over 2.8% in Wednesday’s after-market trade after falling briefly on the comments.

RTX stock climbed over 61% in the past year.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.
 

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