Shares of defense contractor General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) jumped 4% through noon ET Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected sales and earnings for Q3 2023 this morning.

Heading into the quarter, analysts had forecast General Dynamics would earn $2.75 per share on $9.5 billion in quarterly sales. In fact, the defense company-cum-Gulfstream jet-builder earned $3.04 per share for the quarter, and its sales topped out at $10.6 billion -- significant beats on both the top and bottom lines.  

How big of a surprise was this? Well, consider that Wall Street was expecting General Dynamics' sales to decline 5% year over year in Q3, but sales grew 6% instead. Even more amazing, earnings that analysts hoped would merely sit flat year over year instead grew 10%.  

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Source Fool.com