Aircraft delivery drop, health care charge hurt Textron 1st-quarter results

Aircraft delivery drop hurts Textron 1Q results

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Textron Inc., which makes Bell helicopters and Cessna aircraft, reported on Thursday it lost $8 million in the first quarter due in part to fewer aircraft deliveries. It also cited charges for restructuring and the tax impact of health care reform.

Textron CEO and President Scott C. Donnelly said world economies appear to be recovering and he expects the “economic trend will translate to an eventual rebound in orders for business jets and commercial helicopters, as well.”

The company reaffirmed it expects earnings from continuing operations excluding special charges in the range of 30 cents to 50 cents this year. Analysts are expecting 45 cents a share.

Textron shares rose $2.06, or 9.5 percent, to $23.66 in morning trading.

The Providence, R.I., company has been hurt by a downturn in sales of business jets as company spending and credit dried up in the recession and as lawmakers frowned on executives’ private jets.

Textron said it delivered 31 Citation jets from its Cessna segment during the first quarter, down from 69 jets in the same quarter last year. Revenue fell 44 percent in that segment to $433 million.

The company also said it took a charge of $11 million, or 4 cents per share, due to health care legislation recently passed by Congress. It also took a pretax restructuring charge of $12 million in the quarter.

Textron said its first-quarter loss amounted to 3 cents per share in the three months that ended April 3. That compares to a profit of $86 million, or 35 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2009.

The company reported an adjusted loss of a penny per share from continuing operations.

That was better than analysts’ average estimate for a loss of 3 cents a share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

Revenue fell 13 percent to $2.21 billion from $2.53 billion a year ago. Analysts expected higher revenue of $2.38 billion.

Revenue dropped 17 percent to $618 million in the company’s Bell segment and 38 percent to $76 million in its finance segment. In contrast, industrial revenue rose 32 percent to $625 million.

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