New York, Feb 22, 2026, 13:41 EST — Market closed.
- RTX shares ended Friday at $204.92 as the stock traded ex-dividend for a 68-cent payout.
- Raytheon said the U.S. Navy approved its StormBreaker smart weapon for operational use on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet.
- Investors are watching for follow-on procurement signals and any fresh read on Pratt & Whitney engine supplies.
RTX Corp shares head into the new week after its Raytheon unit said the U.S. Navy cleared its StormBreaker precision weapon for operational use on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The stock ended Friday at $204.92.
The clearance matters because “operational use” is a practical gate: it can broaden how a system is fielded across a fleet and can pull demand into the procurement pipeline. For RTX, that’s the cleaner part of the story right now — weapons, orders, and delivery tempo.
But the company’s commercial engine business keeps tugging the other way. Pratt & Whitney is still working through supply constraints and inspections that can spill into aircraft production schedules, and investors have been quick to price in any wobble.
On Friday, RTX slipped about 0.24% from Thursday’s close, trading between $203.02 and $206.36, with about 10.3 million shares changing hands. The session came with a technical wrinkle: the stock traded ex-dividend, meaning buyers on or after that date are not entitled to the next payout. (Yahoo Finance)
Raytheon said StormBreaker is designed to engage moving and stationary targets in adverse weather over land or sea, and that the Navy has now approved it for operational use on the Super Hornet. “Equipping it with StormBreaker increases the aircraft’s lethality … in all weather conditions,” said Sam Deneke, president of Air & Space Defense Systems at Raytheon. (RTX)
RTX’s board has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.68 per share, payable on March 19 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 20, the company said earlier this month. The ex-dividend date can mechanically pressure the stock price, even when underlying demand hasn’t changed. (RTX)
The defense backdrop has stayed busy. Britain and European allies said on Friday they would work together to develop new low-cost air defence weapons, a push London framed as strengthening NATO’s air shield. “We are stepping up — investing together in the next generation of air defence,” Britain’s minister for defence readiness and industry Luke Pollard said. (Reuters)
In commercial aerospace, Airbus this week trimmed its main jet output goal and blamed supply shortfalls from Pratt & Whitney, an RTX unit. “We are very dissatisfied,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told analysts, adding Airbus would “enforce our contractual rights,” while RTX declined to comment in the report. (Reuters)
Airbus can also fit A320neo-family jets with engines from CFM, a GE Aerospace–Safran venture, and any shift in mix is watched closely by engine suppliers. On the defense side, StormBreaker’s Super Hornet clearance also ties back to Boeing’s carrier fighter and how quickly the Navy moves from approval to broader buys.
But investors have learned not to treat approvals as instant revenue. Procurement can slip, budgets shift, and a sharper Airbus-Pratt dispute could drag on margins if Pratt has to juggle new engine deliveries against higher-priority repair work.
U.S. markets reopen Monday, with RTX likely to trade off defense headlines and any signs of movement in engine supply talks. The next marked date on the calendar is the March 19 dividend payment.
