17 companies · median 11 of 36 checks · prices as of 2026-10-23
Vehicle and aerospace stocks.
Sorted by how many checks each one passes. Sort by any column to see who is cheapest, who is growing, or who has the strongest balance sheet - and how that compares with what is normal for the industry.
Ranked by checks passed
17 companies in this sector→The vehicle and aerospace companies we cover are not one trade: Lockheed Martin (LMT) passes 24 of its 36 checks and Archer Aviation (ACHR) passes 3, with a median of 11.
→TSLA, RTX, BA are 79% of the $2.37T we cover here, so a sector average says more about them than about the rest.
| Save | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lockheed MartinLMTThe largest defense contractor: the F-35, missiles, space and military systems.Report | +2.4% | +27.2% | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 24/36 | |
 General DynamicsGDBuilds Gulfstream business jets, nuclear submarines, combat vehicles and defense IT systems.Report | -0.4% | +5.2% | 3 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 24/36 | |
 Honeywell InternationalHONMakes aerospace parts, building controls, industrial automation and specialty materials.Report | +1.3% | +10.4% | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 21/36 | |
 RTXRTXMakes jet engines at Pratt & Whitney, and missiles and defense systems at Raytheon.Report | -1.9% | +8.9% | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 20/36 | |
 General MotorsGMBuilds Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac vehicles, and owns the Cruise autonomy unit.Report | -1.7% | +13.8% | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 16/36 | |
 TeslaTSLABuilds electric cars, batteries and energy storage, and is betting on autonomy.Report | -0.6% | -15.2% | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 15/36 | |
 Kratos DefenseKTOSBuilds drones, rocket engines, hypersonic systems and satellite ground equipment for the military.Report | +1.1% | -54.1% | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 12/36 | |
 BoeingBABuilds commercial jets and defense aircraft, recovering from production and safety problems.Report | +0.4% | -13.0% | 0 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 11/36 | |
 FordFBuilds Ford trucks and cars, with a profitable commercial business and a loss-making EV unit.Report | -2.9% | -2.3% | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 11/36 | |
 AeroVironmentAVAVMakes small military drones and Switchblade loitering munitions for the US and its allies.Report | +4.7% | -65.3% | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10/36 | |
 Rocket LabRKLBLaunches small satellites on its Electron rocket and builds spacecraft components.Report | +2.7% | -13.2% | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9/36 | |
 RedwireRDWBuilds components and infrastructure for spacecraft, and military drones through Edge Autonomy.Report | +2.7% | +9.4% | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8/36 | |
 LucidLCIDBuilds luxury electric cars, majority-owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund.Report | +1.7% | -81.0% | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8/36 | |
 RivianRIVNBuilds electric pickups, SUVs and Amazon delivery vans, still losing money on each one.Report | -1.9% | -8.4% | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7/36 | |
 Joby AviationJOBYDeveloping electric air taxis, awaiting certification, pre-revenue.Report | +1.3% | -69.2% | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5/36 | |
| Firefly AerospaceFLYBuilds small rockets and lunar landers for NASA, the military and commercial customers.Report | +4.0% | -30.5% | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3/36 | |
 Archer AviationACHRDeveloping electric air taxis, awaiting certification, pre-revenue.Report | +2.9% | -64.0% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3/36 |
The filings behind this table close between 2026-06-28 and 2026-09-30, because these companies do not share a fiscal calendar; prices are the close of 2026-10-23. Each name links to its full report; every score is a count of pass-or-fail checks read from that company's own filings.
Where the sector falls short
median score per axis→Shareholder returns is where the vehicle and aerospace companies we cover come up short most often, at a median of 0 of 6, while Growth runs at 3.
| Value | ●○○○○○ | 1 of 6 |
| Growth | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Quality | ●○○○○○ | 1 of 6 |
| Financial health | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Shareholder returns | ○○○○○○ | 0 of 6 |
| Trend | ○○○○○○ | 0 of 6 |
What a normal margin looks like here
sector percentiles · 68 filers→Gross margin clusters among vehicle and aerospace companies, from 16% to 28% across the middle of the field, with a midpoint of 20% measured over 68 filers.
| Metric | Bottom third | Midpoint | Top third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin n=68 | 16.5% | 20.2% | 28.2% |
| Operating margin n=79 | -0.1% | 4.8% | 9.1% |
| Net margin n=87 | -0.3% | 2.1% | 4.8% |
| Return on equity n=79 | -0.6% | 5.1% | 10.8% |
Who grows, and who keeps it
every company in the industry→RTX, LMT, GD, HON do both: growing faster than this industry's middle and keeping more of each sale than it does. The industry's middle is 5% growth on a 7% margin. F, GM, TSLA do neither.
A year of price
not a fact about the business→6 of 17 are up over twelve months and the median move is -13.0% - Lockheed Martin (LMT) at +27.2% against Lucid (LCID) at -81.0%. Price is not a fact about a business, and the Trend chapter of each report says what it is measured on.
Head to head
1 pairThe table above gives the order. These put two of them in one column each, so you can see where the difference actually is.