DEFENSE COMPANIES & THE ANALYSTS WHO DEFEND THEM...

Perhaps in the back of your mind, you've been wondering if defense companies have done well over the past 5 years... here is the link to top defense companies on yahoo finance.

(clicking on the graph will expand it)

As you'd expect some defense companies have beaten the dow average by a hefty margin. The real question is, what is the earnings projections for these companies - and are they over valued in light of their strong performance. Also, what about the risk of lawsuits or chargebacks from the government?

RECENT HEADLINES SUGGEST STRONG GROWTH WILL CONTINUE...

	LMT		Lockheed Gets $23M Air Force Deal AP (Mon 6:05pm)
•	NOC		Northrop Gets $7.7M Navy Deal AP (Mon 5:59pm)
•	GD		General Dynamics Gets $244.5M Contract AP (Mon 5:47pm)
•	BA		Boeing CEO Sees 2006 As Turnaround Year AP (Mon 5:30pm)
•	GD		GD gets $244.5 mln of US Marines vehicle order at Reuters (Mon 5:04pm)
•	GD		General Dynamics unit gets $244.5 mln Marine work order

After a quick analysis of PDS (Precision Drilling Trust), I decided not to pursue them further at this time given their Forward PE of 10.94 vs Current PE of 6.4.

Details:
Took a look at PDS (Precision Drilling Trust). As of December 31, 2006, Precision Drilling operated a fleet of 240 drilling rigs and 237 service rigs.

They caught my attention due to their low PE of 6.4 and the 12% price gain from the last time we looked at them.

Analysts estimates for earnings show a consistent downward trend for each of the past few quarters.