In my experience, better missile parts have better long range attacks. Chances are you are using a fleet with multiple different tiers of missile weapons.
As for damage, I've found that they deal damage equal what a single round of attack does. So if your fleet has an attack of 50, expect it do 25 damage (average damage). Also, I find that ranged missile attacks can only kill 1 ship per turn. Great if you are attacking a few big ships, bad if you are attacking a swarm.