Companies tell investors how much of their revenue comes from the U.S. government. Federal contract records show how much the government committed to pay them. For eighteen of the 22 companies where we publish both, a year of contract obligations came to less than the U.S. government revenue the company reported. The median ratio of the two is 0.69.
Four companies are at or above 1.0: Fluor at 1.55, Lockheed Martin at 1.38, Maximus at 1.30 and General Dynamics at 1.00. The lowest published ratio is Leonardo DRS's, at 0.41. Across all 22, matched obligations totaled $235.9B against $260.4B of reported U.S. government revenue, a combined ratio of 0.91 (our calculation). Seven more companies have a ratio we are withholding while we review their contract match.
Contract obligations ÷ reported U.S. government revenue
Obligations in the federal fiscal year that ends inside each company's fiscal year.
Show the data as a table
| Company | Obligations | Reported U.S. gov revenue | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fluor FLR | $4.08B | $2.64B | 1.55 |
| Lockheed Martin LMT | $74.8B | $54.0B | 1.38 |
| Maximus MMS | $3.87B | $2.99B | 1.30 |
| General Dynamics GD | $35.8B | $35.8B | 1.00 |
| RTX RTX | $31.0B | $33.3B | 0.93 |
| Huntington Ingalls HII | $11.0B | $12.5B | 0.88 |
| Textron TXT | $3.47B | $4.00B | 0.87 |
| V2X VVX | $3.27B | $4.30B | 0.76 |
| Oshkosh OSK | $1.57B | $2.08B | 0.75 |
| Leidos LDOS | $11.1B | $14.9B | 0.74 |
| Boeing BA | $22.2B | $31.3B | 0.71 |
| Science Applications International SAIC | $4.75B | $7.11B | 0.67 |
| Accenture ACN | $3.74B | $5.57B | 0.67 |
| CACI International CACI | $5.08B | $9.15B | 0.56 |
| KBR KBR | $2.50B | $4.43B | 0.56 |
| Palantir PLTR | $1.02B | $1.85B | 0.55 |
| Amentum AMTM | $6.11B | $11.7B | 0.52 |
| Jacobs Solutions J | $476M | $962M | 0.49 |
| L3Harris LHX | $7.77B | $16.4B | 0.47 |
| ICF International ICFI | $370M | $805M | 0.46 |
| Tetra Tech TTEK | $797M | $1.74B | 0.46 |
| Leonardo DRS DRS | $1.21B | $2.92B | 0.41 |
Dashed line marks 1.0, where a year's contract obligations equal reported U.S. government revenue. Withheld while the match is reviewed: Northrop Grumman, Kratos Defense, Mercury Systems, AeroVironment, BWX Technologies, Moog, Teledyne.
The obligation ratio divides a company's matched prime contract obligations in one federal fiscal year by the U.S. government revenue in its annual report. We pair each company fiscal year with the federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) that ends inside it. A ratio of 1.0 means the two records match. Obligations are commitments to pay, not revenue, so we expect the ratio to stray from 1.0. It is a cross-check, not a measure of performance. See the glossary.
Two records of the same relationship
The reported share comes from the company. It is the figure investors usually cite, and each company defines it in its own way. The contract record comes from the government. USAspending.gov publishes prime contract obligations by recipient, and we assign each recipient to its parent company using the rules on our methodology page.
Neither record is the "true" one. They are recorded by different parties, at different moments, under different rules. Our explainer on obligations, outlays and revenue covers the accounting. When the two agree, the reported share is backed by a public contract trail. When they don't, the gap tells you something about how the company's government business works, or about the limits of the data.
What pushes the ratio below 1
Most companies sit below 1.0. Several general features of the data push in that direction:
- Subcontract work. Revenue a company earns as a subcontractor is part of another company's prime contract. It counts in the subcontractor's reported share but not in its own prime obligations.
- Money obligated in earlier years. A contract funded in one federal year can produce revenue for several years after. Revenue this year can rest on obligations recorded before the period we measure.
- Work outside the contract record. Grants and other assistance are not prime contracts, and classified contract actions are generally not public.
- Gaps in our match. A subsidiary under an unfamiliar name can be missed. We also draw obligations from the largest contract recipients each year, so very small subsidiaries can fall below our cut-off.
The subcontract effect is visible in the data. Leidos, Science Applications International, CACI International, Jacobs Solutions, L3Harris and Leonardo DRS say their reported share includes work as a subcontractor, and all six have ratios below 1.0: 0.74, 0.67, 0.56, 0.49, 0.47 and 0.41. That is consistent with the effect, though it does not prove it is the cause for any one company.
What pushes it above 1
A ratio above 1.0 means the government committed more in a year than the company recognized as U.S. government revenue. General reasons include:
- Multi-year commitments. An agency can obligate money up front for work that runs several years, such as long-lead parts or multiyear purchases. The company books the revenue as it does the work.
- Foreign military sales (FMS). FMS contracts are signed by the Department of Defense, so they appear as Pentagon awards. A company that counts FMS as international revenue leaves them out of its U.S. government figure, while the contract record still includes them.
- Matching errors. A recipient wrongly assigned to a company inflates its obligations.
FMS treatment alone does not sort the companies. Lockheed Martin appears to count FMS as international and has the highest published ratio. RTX also excludes FMS, and its ratio is 0.93. Northrop Grumman excludes FMS too, and its ratio is under review. General Dynamics includes FMS in its U.S. government figure and comes out at 1.00. We haven't established why any single company's ratio sits where it does, and a high ratio is not a forecast of higher revenue.
Withheld: Northrop Grumman, Kratos Defense, Mercury Systems, AeroVironment, BWX Technologies, Moog and Teledyne
A ratio below 0.4 or above 2.0 sends a company to manual review before we publish it. Gaps that large often mean the match needs checking: a missed subsidiary, an acquired business under its old name, or a recipient assigned to the wrong company. Sometimes the gap is real and has a structural explanation. Either way, a person has to look before the number goes on the site, so these companies' pages show "under review" instead of a ratio.
For all seven, the obligations we matched are well below the revenue the company reports. Some features of these companies are already on record. Kratos Defense, Mercury Systems, AeroVironment and Moog say their reported share includes work as a subcontractor. Mercury Systems' reported figure also includes sales to defense prime contractors, which by definition would not appear in Mercury's own prime contract record. BWX Technologies' page lists two joint ventures, which our rules keep out of both owners' totals. The review will check these points along with the match itself. We publish the ratio, or a note explaining why it falls outside the range, once that is done.
Not computed: Booz Allen Hamilton, Parsons, Hexcel, TransDigm, Howmet Aerospace, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Alphabet and Dell Technologies
The ratio needs a denominator. Booz Allen Hamilton and Parsons do not disclose a company-wide U.S. government share, so there is no reported figure to divide by. Their contract obligations are on their company pages. We don't estimate a share to fill the gap.
How to read a company's ratio
- Near 1.0. The two records broadly agree. The company's reported share is supported by a public contract trail of about the same size.
- Well below 1.0. Much of the company's government revenue may reach it in ways the prime contract record doesn't show, such as subcontracts or money obligated in earlier years. Check whether its 10-K says the share includes subcontract work.
- Above 1.0. The government committed more than the company booked that year. Look at the company's largest awards for multi-year obligations, and at how it treats FMS.
Each company page shows the obligations by federal fiscal year, the recipients we matched and the largest awards, so you can check the record yourself. The full ranking by reported share is on the rankings page.
How we did this
For each company, the numerator is prime contract obligations (USAspending award types A to D) to every recipient we matched to it, in the federal fiscal year that ends inside the company's fiscal year. The denominator is the U.S. government revenue in its latest 10-K: the company's own dollar figure where it gives one, otherwise its reported share times total revenue, which we label as calculated. Joint ventures are kept out of both owners' totals. Ratios outside 0.4 to 2.0 are withheld until reviewed. The full method is on the methodology page.