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 Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions 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 Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc.

Hexcel Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets advanced lightweight composites technology. It operates through two segments, Composite Materials and Engineered Products. The company offers carbon fiber, reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, honeycomb, resins, engineered core and composite structures for use in commercial aerospace, defense and space, and industrial applications. The Composite Materials segment manufactures and markets carbon fibers, fabrics, multi-axials, specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, structural adhesives, honeycomb, molding compounds, tooling materials, polyurethane systems, and laminates that are used in military aircraft, transportation, recreational products, and other industrial applications. The Engineered Products segment manufactures and markets aircraft structures and finished aircraft components, including wing to body fairings, wing panels, flight deck panels, door liners, rotorcraft blades, spars, and tip caps; and aircraft structural sub-components and semi-finished components used in rotorcraft blades, engine nacelles, and aircraft surfaces, such as flaps, wings, elevators, and fairings; and RF interference control products for military and aerospace applications. This segment also provides interference control materials, structural composites, and services; dielectric absorber foams; magnetic absorbers; and thermoplastics for commercial and defense applications. The company sells its products directly through its marketing managers, product managers, and sales personnel, as well as through independent distributors in the Americas, Europe, the Asia Pacific, India, and Africa. Hexcel Corporation was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., a technology company, provides technology, hardware, products, system, and software for the defense, national security, and commercial markets in the United States, other North America, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, and Internationally. The company operates through Kratos Government Solutions and Unmanned Systems segments. It offers virtualized ground systems for satellites and space vehicles, including software for command and control, telemetry, and tracking and control; jet powered unmanned aerial drone systems and hypersonic vehicles and rocket systems; propulsion systems for drones, missiles, loitering munitions, supersonic systems, spacecraft and launch systems, command, control, communication, computing, combat, and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance; and microwave electronic products for missile, radar, missile defense, space, and satellite; and counter unmanned aircraft systems, directed energy, communication and other systems, and virtual and augmented reality training systems for the warfighter. The company primarily serves national security-related agencies, the U.S. Department of Defense, intelligence and classified agencies, international government agencies, and domestic and international commercial customers. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. was formerly known as Wireless Facilities, Inc. and changed its name to Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. in August 1999. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Latest Aerospace & Defense and Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. Stock News

As of September 1, 2026, Hexcel Corporation had a $7.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the Aerospace & Defense median of $3.9 million. Hexcel Corporation’s stock is up 24.2% in 2026, down 3% in the previous five trading days and up 45.81% in the past year.

Currently, Hexcel Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 46.5. Hexcel Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.0 billion with a 7.8% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 8.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $2.399 per share for the current fiscal year. Hexcel Corporation currently has a 0.8% dividend yield.

As of September 1, 2026, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. had a $9.3 billion market cap, putting it in the 76th percentile of all stocks. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.’s stock is down 37.1% in 2026, down 9.7% in the previous five trading days and down 25.06% in the past year.

Currently, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 292.0. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.5 billion with a 2.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 30.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $0.817 per share for the current fiscal year. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions 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 Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Hexcel Corporation	HXL	D
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.	KTOS	F

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.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Hexcel Corporation has a Value Score of 24, which is Expensive. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has a Value Score of 5, which is Ultra Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Hexcel Corporation	HXL	C
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.	KTOS	C

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.

Hexcel Corporation has a Growth Score of 56, which is Average. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has a Growth Score of 56, which is Average.

The Growth Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions or Inc. has a high enough Growth Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to sustainable growth.

Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Hexcel Corporation	HXL	B
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.	KTOS	D

Momentum grades help to 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. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Hexcel Corporation has a Momentum Score of 70, which is Strong. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 23, which is Weak.

The Momentum Grade Winner: Hexcel Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Momentum Grade breakdown above, Hexcel Corporation is considered to have stronger momentum compared to Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.. For those specifically looking for companies that have stronger momentum compared to other companies in the same industry, Hexcel Corporation could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc. Grades

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

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

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite 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 F-Score.

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 Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Hexcel Corporation stock has a Value Score of 24, Growth Score of 56 and Momentum Score of 70.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 5, Growth Score of 56 and Momentum Score of 23.

Comparing Hexcel Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions 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.

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.