Honeywell International Inc vs Rocket Lab Corp, two Aerospace & Defense stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Honeywell is a large, diversified industrial with an aerospace arm, profitable across the board: 23.92% return on equity, a 9.32% net margin, a 1.98% dividend, priced at 36.04 times earnings on a $147.7B cap with meaningful debt of 2.5. Rocket Lab is a small, single-minded space company at a $51.2B cap that loses money on purpose while it grows, running a -26.87% net margin and burning a little cash, carrying almost no debt at 0.02. Honeywell spreads its bets across many mature markets and pays you to wait. Rocket Lab concentrates everything on one young space-launch business that has not yet reached the profit it is priced for.
Comparison updated 2026-07-11.
| Metric | HON | RKLB |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $226.40 | $81.08 |
| Market cap | $144.5B | $49.1B |
| Sector | Aerospace & Defense | Aerospace & Defense |
| Stage | Mature | Growth |
| Implied growth (priced in) | +13.4% | — |
| P/E | 35.3 | — |
| P/B | 9.85 | 21.68 |
| P/S | 3.84 | 72.23 |
| EV/EBITDA | 17.5 | — |
| Revenue growth | +6.2% | +45.8% |
| Gross margin | — | 38.2% |
| Operating margin | 23.3% | -27.9% |
| Net margin | 9.3% | -26.9% |
| Return on equity | 23.9% | -8.1% |
| Return on assets | 4.7% | -6.5% |
| Return on invested capital | 14.4% | -7.8% |
| FCF yield | 2.9% | -0.6% |
| Dividend yield | 2.0% | — |
| Debt / equity | 2.50 | 0.02 |
| Current ratio | 1.39 | 4.47 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 7.71 | 6.25 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 3 / 9 | 2 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.