Orbital’s 2011 revenue guidance was boosted 2 percent ($25 million) to between $1.325 billion and $1.375 billion while also boosting EPS guidance and upgrading its free cash flow forecast by $10 million to fall between $40 million and $60 million.

   The manufacturer outperformed analysts’ second-quarter projections in nearly every category. Orbital Sciences’ revenues increased 5 percent to $354 million, beating its consensus target of $328 million. Orbital said its revenue growth was aided by its strength in national security satellites, launch targets, and technical services.

   Orbital’s launch and target revenues were especially strong during the quarter at 37 percent revenue growth contributing $36 million year-over-year. Orbital CEO David Thompson said its divisional growth reflected an $18 million increase in revenues generated by its Taurus 2 rocket through its NASA COTS and CRS program contracts. Segment profits nearly doubled to $6.8 million aided by a drop in un-recovered research and development costs.

    Raymond James Analyst Chris Quilty highlighted Orbital’s second-quarter boom in classified business and said its strength has the potential to increase. “Revenues from national security satellite programs grew $22 million to approximately $80 million, and now represent Orbital’s number three product line behind the GEO satellite and the Launch and Target product category.Despite budget headwinds in the U.S. House military budget proposal to cut classified Air Force spending by 25 percent, we’re confident that Orbital can continue to grow in a declining budget environment by delivering lower-cost higher-value satellite solutions,” Quilty said in a statement to Satellite News.

     While Orbital finished the quarter much stronger than anticipated, the company did reveal some shortcomings. The company said a two-month delay in the initial Taurus 2 launch was caused by construction delays at the launch complex. That launch is now scheduled for December.

Orbital’s bookings also fell short at $255 million, however, the company’s total backlog increased 18 percent to $5.3 billion following an unusually strong booking period in the 2011 first quarter. Orbital management also said the company is pursuing new contracts that could yield total new orders of $1.3 billion by year-end and boost expectations to top 2010 orders of $2.1 billion by at least 20 percent and by as much as 25 percent to 30 percent.

     Quilty said a successful Taurus 2 flight should set the company on a path toward increased launch revenues and multiple expansion.

     “We affirm our ‘outperform’ rating. Orbital executed six major rocket launches and space system deployments during the quarter and completed and delivered eight additional systems during the quarter. As Orbital makes steady progress toward its inaugural Taurus 2 CRS mission to the International Space Station likely to take place in February 2012, we expect the multiple to gradually expand toward the midpoint of the company’s historical trading range of 7x to 13x,” Quilty said.