WILMINGTON, Ohio (AP) – Air Transport Services Group Inc. (ATSG) on Tuesday reported first-quarter profit of $22.7 million.
The Wilmington, Ohio-based company said it had profit of 25 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 37 cents per share.
The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 28 cents per share.
The air cargo company posted revenue of $348.2 million in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $306 million.
Air Transport Services shares have fallen nearly 4% since the beginning of the year. The stock has increased nearly 7% in the last 12 months.
FILE PHOTO: Cessna employee works on an engine of a Cessna business jet at the assembly line in their manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kansas March 12, 2013. REUTERS/Jeff Tuttle
(Reuters) – Cessna business jet maker Textron Inc reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, benefiting from robust aircraft deliveries, sending its share up 1.6 percent in early trading.
Business jet demand has been growing steadily in the United States, the world’s biggest market, on the back of an expanding economy and rising corporate profits.
Textron said it delivered 44 jets in the first quarter ended March 30, up from 36 last year. Commercial turboprop deliveries rose to 44 aircraft from 29 last year.
“We think this quarter has pretty much ticked all the boxes for Textron. Aviation growth has continued, with a positive book to bill in the quarter,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard said.
Textron has faced delays in final certification of its newest super mid-size Longitude jet, which is expected to contribute a ‘big chunk’ to the company’s revenue growth in 2019.
Analysts have warned that the certification delays from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration due to partial government shutdown followed by the regulator’s intense focus on re-certifying Boeing Co’s 737 MAX aircraft might impact sales growth at the company in the short.
Though the aviation business was among the drivers for a profit beat, Textron’s revenue missed Wall Street estimates, hurt by lower sales in its systems unit, which makes tactical armored patrol vehicles.
Textron re-affirmed its full-year profit outlook range of $3.55 to $3.75 per share.
Sales in the company’s aviation business, its biggest, rose 12.3 percent to $1.13 billion in the first quarter, while sales in the systems unit fell more than 20 percent to $307 million.
The company’s net income fell to $179 million in the quarter ended March 30 from $189 million a year earlier.
Textron earned 76 cents per share, above analysts’ average estimate of 68 cents, according to Refinitiv data.
Textron’s revenue fell 5.7 percent to $3.11 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $3.17 billion.
(Reporting by Divya R and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
(Reuters) – Boeing Co topped expectations with both quarterly profit and its forecast for 2019 cash flow on Wednesday, as a boom in air travel underpinned a prediction for full-year deliveries of around 900 commercial airplanes.
The company said it expects to deliver between 895 and 905 commercial aircraft in 2019, up from the 806 units it delivered last year, which kept it ahead of rival Airbus as the world’s biggest planemaker for the seventh straight year.
Boeing’s shares rose 6.4 percent to $388.25 in early trading in response, helping lift the U.S. stock futures.
Investors closely watch the number of planes Boeing turns over to airlines and leasing firms in a year for hints on the company’s cash flow and revenue.
The company forecast operating cash flow between $17 billion (13 billion pounds) and $17.5 billion in 2019, compared with cash flow of $15.32 billion in 2018, and above analysts’ average estimate of $16.73 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
It expected 2019 core earnings between $19.90 per share and $20.10 per share, and revenue between $109.5 billion and $111.5 billion.
Those numbers indicate that the fuselage and engine delays at suppliers that dominated last year are largely behind Boeing.
Boeing’s core earnings rose to $5.48 per share in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from $5.07 per share a year earlier, and came in above Wall Street’s estimate of $4.57 per share.
Quarterly revenue rose 14.4 percent to $28.34 billion, above analysts’ average expectation of $26.87 billion.
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
