Stifel analyst Nathan Jones upgraded Curtiss-Wright to Buy and raised his price target to $122 from $120, saying the stock should benefit from a more defensive investor positioning in 2019 and also believes that its 26% sell-off since mid-September peak is overdone. The analyst notes that as part of his expectation of slower 2019 growth, he prefers companies with "strong balance sheets to both protect and provide flexibility to pick off quality assets should a downturn materialize." Jones also sees Curtiss-Wright benefiting from the increase in the Department of Defense budget as well as the cyclically positive position of its power business.

Stifel raised the firm's price target on Curtiss-Wright to $272 from $255 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. In a Q1 preview for the diversified industrials group, the firm says it is "generally fairly neutral on stocks under our coverage" with an expectation that companies will be seeing improving demand fundamentals with improving short cycle and waning inventory destocking, offset by the strong performance of the stocks during the quarter. In general, the firm is expecting management commentary to be more positive on the second half, while maintaining a relatively cautious approach to guidance, the analyst tells investors in the preview.