Higher Revenue, Lower Profit Reported By The Company

In a conference call with analysts Wednesday, Cessna executives said that orders were "very, very light" in July and August, but a bit stronger in September. The result was higher revenue for the quarter, but the bottom line took a hit.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Cessna's revenues were up $7 million to $778 million, but the profit shrank to $30 million when compared to a year ago, down $3 million. RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Stallard wrote in his report that third quarter revenue for Cessna was "considerably lower than we had expected."

Textron chairman and CEO Scott Connely said that one bright spot is that order cancellations continued to decline. More of the companies and individuals that have ordered airplanes are actually taking delivery.

But Cessna said in its quarterly earnings report Wednesday that the revenue increase is largely due to a boost in used airplane sales, which offset a drop in the deliveries of new bizjets. The company's production backlog totals $1.3 billion, down $156 million from the second quarter. The bump in used aircraft sales for the quarter was $30 million.

Donnely also said that the market right now favors buyers over sellers, and that production will likely be flat for the rest of the year. He said he expects activity to be "normal" in the fourth quarter, which analyst Stallard said is normally a "big quarter for the bizjet industry."

FMI: www.cessna.com