Textron reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, hit by a drop in sales of its turboprop aircraft as well as flat deliveries of its flagship Cessna business jets, sending shares down 10 percent.
Textron delivered just 41 business jets in the third quarter ended Sept. 29, flat compared to a year ago after growing in each of the first two quarters of this year.
Turboprop sales sank to 43 planes from 57 a year earlier, reducing revenue in the company’s main Aviation unit by 2 percent and helping drag profit down to 61 cents per share, well below Wall Street’s estimate of 76 cents.
Worldwide business jet sales took a hit during the financial crisis and have struggled to recover since, with 2017 aircraft deliveries only around half a peak of 1,317 hit in 2008.
Numbers had finally begun to improve, however, driven by tax windfall handed to corporate America by U.S. President Donald Trumpin January and jet sales are expected to rise 8 percent in 2019.
“Investor reaction to this miss likely will be keyed to management color on aviation demand,” Cowen & Co. analyst Cai von Rumohr said in a note.
The company was starting a call with analysts on the results at 8 a.m. ET.
Sales in Textron’s industrial products unit, which makes all-terrain vehicles, golf cars, and snowmobiles, fell 10.7 percent to $930 million, mainly due to the sale of its tools and test equipment business to Emerson Electric.
Sales in the company’s systems business also fell 5.2 percent to $770 million, hurt by lower deliveries of tactical armoured patrol vehicles. The unit also makes unmanned aircraft and flight simulators.
Total revenue fell about 8.2 percent to $3.20 billion, missing analysts’ average estimate of $3.53 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
The company also narrowed its 2018 earnings per share forecast to a range of $3.20 to $3.30, from $3.15 to $3.35.
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