Revenues higher for Textron's Bell unit, lower for Systems unit

By John Liang / April 18, 2018 at 10:24 AM

Textron's Bell business unit reported higher quarterly revenues while its Systems unit's revenues were lower, the company said today.

Bell Textron's revenues were $752 million, up 8 percent on higher military volume, but were partially offset by "lower commercial revenues due to [the] mix of aircraft sold," the company said in a quarterly earnings statement.

Bell said it delivered 46 commercial helicopters in the quarter, up from 27 the same quarter the previous year. Profit for the segment was up $4 million compared to the previous quarter, "primarily due to the higher volume," and backlog at the end of the first quarter was $3.6 billion.

Textron's Systems business unit, however, reported revenues of $387 million, down from $416 million the previous year, "largely on lower volume at Weapons & Sensors related to the discontinuance of [Sensor Fuzed Weapon] production in 2017." That said, the company reported segment profit up $30 million "despite the lower revenue, primarily reflecting improved performance at Marine and Land." Textron Systems' backlog at the end of the first quarter was $1.4 billion, according to the statement.

Overall, Textron reported first-quarter income of 72 cents per share, up from 37 cents per share the same quarter last year. The company also announced it "has reached a definitive agreement to sell its Tools & Test business to Emerson, a global technology and engineering company, for approximately $810 million in cash." Textron said it would use the cash to buy back "up to 40 million shares of the company's common stock."

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