Lockheed Martin beat Wall Street’s third-quarter predictions Wednesday reporting a 23 percent jump in earnings for the third quarter of 2007 and an increase of 16 percent in sales.

The Bethesda company posted earnings of $766 million, or $1.80 per share, up from $629 million, or $1.46 per share, during the third quarter of 2006. Third-quarter sales rose to $11.1 billion from $9.6 billion.