ATRO vs RTX: How Astronics Corporation and RTX Corporation Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. ATRO and RTX share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined ATRO and RTX exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Astronics Corporation has been in East Aurora, New York since 1968, and it sells components rather than aircraft. The Aerospace segment, about 93 percent of revenue, supplies electrical power generation and distribution systems, in-seat and cabin power (the EmPower line is on more than a million seats across 260-plus airlines and holds a dominant share of narrowbody in-seat power), lighting and safety systems, seat motion, avionics and aircraft structures. The smaller Test Systems segment builds automated test equipment for defense and mass transit, and its anchor program is the U.S. Army TS-4549/T radio test set, an IDIQ contract initially funded at roughly $215 million that entered full-rate production with a ~$44.7 million order in June 2026. Customers are the airframers, the seat and interior integrators, the in-flight entertainment vendors and government programs, so revenue tracks other people's production schedules more than end-consumer demand.

Full ATRO guide

RTX Corporation (RTX), formerly Raytheon Technologies, is one of the world's largest aerospace and defense companies. It operates three businesses. Collins Aerospace supplies avionics, interiors, actuation, and other systems for commercial and military aircraft. Pratt & Whitney designs and manufactures jet engines for airliners (including the geared turbofan) and military aircraft, and earns substantial recurring revenue from servicing its large installed engine base. Raytheon, the defense segment, builds missiles, missile defense systems (including Patriot), radars, and other advanced defense electronics for the US military and allied governments.

Full RTX guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• ATRO drivers: Aircraft build rates and the retrofit cycle; Margin expansion, not just volume.
• RTX drivers: Commercial aftermarket; Defense backlog and missiles.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The valuation is the first risk: at roughly 75 times trailing earnings and about 3.7 times TTM revenue, the stock is priced for the margin trajectory to continue, and a single quarter of build-rate softness or program timing slippage tends to hit small-cap suppliers hard. For RTX, rTX faces program-execution risks, most visibly the Pratt & Whitney geared-turbofan powder-metal inspection issue that forced costly engine removals and weighed on cash.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick ATRO if you believe its drivers more; RTX if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the ATRO and RTX guides.

ATRO. Astronics guided 2026 revenue to $970 million to $1.0 billion, roughly 14 percent growth and entirely organic, with second quarter sales targeted at $245 million to $250 million and results due August 11, 2026. The gap between the ~75 times trailing multiple and the ~32 times forward multiple shows how much of the thesis rests on 2026 and 2027 earnings arriving as guided. Long-term debt sits near $335 million with about $232 million of available liquidity.

RTX. RTX trades as a large, dividend-paying aerospace and defense blue chip valued on its huge backlog, recurring aftermarket revenue, and dual commercial-defense exposure rather than rapid growth. Its multiple reflects steady, cash-generative franchises balanced against program-execution risk like the geared-turbofan issue, with the dividend and backlog supporting the shares.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): ATRO shows revenue (ttm) ~$887M, q1 2026 sales ~$231M, up ~12% year over year, gross margin (q1 2026) ~32.6%, up from ~29.5%, net income (ttm) ~$45M, EPS ~$1.03; RTX shows revenue (ttm) ~$80 billion, operating margin ~10-12%, backlog Very large (over $200 billion, commercial plus defense), net income (ttm) Several billion dollars.

ATRO and RTX are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined ATRO and RTX exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.