Which Is a Better Investment, Curtiss-Wright Corporation or Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. Stock?

By Tudor Pop
July 31, 2026
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Sifting through countless of stocks in the Aerospace & Defense industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial nuclear power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power. The Aerospace & Industrial segment offers industrial and specialty vehicle products, such as power management electronics, traction inverters, transmission shifters, and control systems; sensors, controls, and electro-mechanical actuation components used on commercial and military aircraft; and surface technology services including shot peening, laser peening, and engineered coatings. The Defense Electronics segment provides commercial off-the-shelf embedded computing board-level modules and processing equipment, data acquisition and flight test instrumentation equipment, integrated subsystems, instrumentation and control systems, tactical communications solutions; and electronic stabilization products, and weapons handling systems; avionics and electronics; flight test equipment; and aircraft data management solutions. The Naval & Power segment offers main coolant pumps, power-dense compact motors, generators, steam turbines, valves, and secondary propulsion systems; energy absorbers, retractable hook cable systems, net-stanchion systems and mobile systems to support fixed land-based arresting systems; hardware, valves, fastening systems, specialized containment doors, airlock hatches, and spent fuel management products; reactor coolant pumps and control rod drive mechanisms for commercial nuclear power plants, as well as various nuclear reactor technologies. This segment furnishes severe-service valve technologies and services, heat exchanger repair, and piping test and isolation products, and offers ship repair and maintenance for the U.S. navy. Curtiss-Wright Corporation was incorporated in 1929 and is headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. designs, builds, overhauls, and repairs military ships in the United States. It operates through three segments: Ingalls, Newport News, and Mission Technologies. The company is involved in the design and construction of non-nuclear ships comprising amphibious assault ships, surface combatants, and national security cutters for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. It also provides nuclear-powered ships, such as aircraft carriers and submarines, as well as refueling and overhaul, and inactivation services of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. In addition, the company offers naval nuclear support services, including fleet services comprising design, construction, maintenance, and disposal activities for in-service the U.S. Navy nuclear ships; and maintenance services on nuclear reactor prototypes. Further, the company provides C5ISR systems and operations; application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to battlefield decisions; defensive and offensive cyberspace strategies and electronic warfare; uncrewed autonomous systems; live, virtual, and constructive solutions; platform modernization; and critical nuclear operations. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Newport News, Virginia.

Latest Aerospace & Defense and Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. Stock News

As of July 31, 2026, Curtiss-Wright Corporation had a $26.7 billion market capitalization, compared to the Aerospace & Defense median of $3.5 million. Curtiss-Wright Corporation’s stock is up 31.3% in 2026, down 3.5% in the previous five trading days and up 45.88% in the past year.

Currently, Curtiss-Wright Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 53.0. Curtiss-Wright Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $3.6 billion with a 14.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 13.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $15.244 per share for the current fiscal year. Curtiss-Wright Corporation currently has a 0.1% dividend yield.

As of July 31, 2026, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. had a $12.9 billion market cap, putting it in the 81st percentile of all stocks. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.’s stock is down 4% in 2026, up 13.5% in the previous five trading days and up 26.28% in the past year.

Currently, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 19.4. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $13.2 billion with a 5.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 10.9%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $18.326 per share for the current fiscal year. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. currently has a 1.7% dividend yield.

How We Compare Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. Growth Grades

Company Ticker Growth
Curtiss-Wright Corporation CW A
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. HII A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company Ticker Quality
Curtiss-Wright Corporation CW A
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. HII B

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation has a Quality Score of 93, which is Very Strong. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. has a Quality Score of 67, which is Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: Curtiss-Wright Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Curtiss-Wright Corporation has a better overall quality grade than Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Curtiss-Wright Corporation could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company Ticker Earnings Estimate
Curtiss-Wright Corporation CW B
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. HII C

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation has a Earnings Estimate Score of 64, which is Positive. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 74, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, both Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. have a grade of B. For those focusing solely on a company’s estimate revisions, other financial metrics will need to be evaluated to determine whether Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries or Inc. is a better fit.

Don’t Forget Your Free Special Report on How A+ Grades Can Help You Make Investment Decisions

Other Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. Grades

In addition to Growth, Estimate Revisions and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Momentum.

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Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Curtiss-Wright Corporation stock has a Growth Score of 100, Estimate Revisions Score of 64 and Quality Score of 93.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 100, Estimate Revisions Score of 74 and Quality Score of 67.

Comparing Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Learn More About A+ Investor

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.



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