Raytheon Co. on Thursday reported a better-than-expected profit in the fourth quarter and said its expects sales to accelerate this year as the defense company ramps up exports and cybersecurity business.

The company reported a profit of $567 million for the quarter compared with $586 million a year earlier, with per-share earnings climbing a penny to $1.89, ahead of the $1.81 a share projected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Sales rose 3% to $6.33 billion.

The maker of Tomahawk missiles and the Patriot missile-defense system is the most export-orientated of the major U.S. defense companies, and like its peers hasn't experienced a slowdown in business despite the drop in oil prices pressuring budgets of big customers in the Middle East and Asia.

Raytheon, which derives around 30% of sales from outside the U.S., forecast revenue to climb to $24 billion to $24.5 billion in 2016—compared with $23.2 billion last year—with per-share earnings in a range of $6.80 to $7.00.

Bookings rose $7.9 billion in the quarter to close the year at $25.2 billion.

The company is betting it can leverage the cybersecurity skills it honed for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies to sell to banks and retailers, investing almost $1.7 billion last year to establish a stand-alone business, recently rebranded as Forcepoint, in an area where its defense peers have struggled to make money.

Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2016 08:05 ET (13:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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