Israel's Elbit Systems posts profit jump on Gaza war, rising defence budgets

TEL AVIV, May 20 (Reuters) - Israel's largest defence firm Elbit Systems ESLT.TA reported higher first-quarter profit on Tuesday, boosted by sales to Israel's military during its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and as global defence spending rises.

Elbit ESLT.O said it earned $2.57 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the first quarter of 2025, up from $1.81 a year earlier.

The results were boosted by a 20% increase in aerospace sales, largely of precision guided munitions from which revenue rose 22% to $1.9 billion.

More than 32% of Elbit's revenue came from Israel, where the country has been fighting Hamas since October 7, 2023. The company has supplied munitions, drones, guided rocket systems, reconnaissance capabilities and other systems.

As numerous global conflicts boosted national defence budgets, Elbit's backlog of orders reached $23.1 billion. Some 66% of the backlog is from outside Israel, while 51% of the orders are scheduled to be fulfilled during 2025 and 2026.

"Elbit is well positioned to capture and benefit from the opportunities of increasing defence budgets globally and particularly in Europe," said CEO Bezhalel Machlis. "We are continuing to invest in increasing our production capacity and optimizing our supply chains in order to address our backlog and the high demand for our products."

Elbit said it would pay a quarterly dividend of 60 cents a share, the same as in the fourth quarter.