RTN and UTX merger

[crimsonghost747]

So, apparently Raytheon and United Technologies are teaming up. Thoughts?

Personally, as a long time shareholder of RTN, I'm quite skeptical. I loved what RTN had and I'm not too happy about adding a lot of commercial into the mix. I wanted a defence contractor and RTN was an amazing one. And while I haven't had the time to look at UTX yet, I keep reading about how this deal will significantly improve their balance sheet. Which means that the combined company will have a weaker balance sheet than RTN did....

I need to look into UTX properly before making any decisions but I might be selling a part of my holdings and transferring it to a more pure defence play. NOC? LMT? Something small and fancy? (Orbital was my small and fancy play but they got snatched away a year or two ago)

[Otter]

Of the defense contractors, GD is the only one I find fairly priced at the moment. I would also love to own LDOS, but it keeps running away. Wish I had gotten in during the December dip.

[stockguru]

Stick with UTX. You have to remember that UTX will be spinning off its to divisions later this year. So they are a defense play and RTN is not going anywhere. In fact the CEO of RTN is coming on board as the CFO. This is a great merger and if Trump understood the business he wouldn't be talking down on it. The guy is clueless.

[crimsonghost747]

I've read a bit more about UTX and quite frankly this deal doesn't seem good to me as a RTN shareholder. I will still keep a relatively large position as I love RTN, but I don't think this will continue to be my largest holding anymore if this deal is done.

It'll take time to have any certainty of this deal even closing, so I'm not in a hurry. But I'm certainly looking into some of the other defense companies and quite possibly moving part of my RTN money there.

[crimsonghost747]

Thought I should post my moves here.
I've maintained my position for the moment, though as I said previously: if the merger goes through then I think I'll reduce it by quite a bit. RTN is absolutely amazing but I'm not a big fan of the UTX part. Still planning on keeping at least 50% of my RTN shares though, no matter what happens.

I've initiated a position in LHX. This will be my smaller, riskier play in the defense sector. Also keeping an eye on NOC and LMT. All 3 of these are possible places to put the money if I end up selling RTN. I do want to remain quite heavily invested in the defense sector.