PROVIDENCE – Textron Inc. said yesterday it is on target to meet its May forecast of a full-year profit of between 33 cents and 63 cents per share before special charges. The company also said it expects to generate manufacturing free cash flow of $300 million to $400 million.
Textron’s (NYSE: TXT) share price surged 16 percent over the past week after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Noah Poponak upgraded the company to “buy” from “neutral” on Sept. 2. The stock closed at $18.00 yesterday, up from $15.50 on Sept. 1.
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In his report, Poponak said each of the Providence-based conglomerate’s various business units, which have been hit hard by the recession and include Cessna airplanes and Bell helicopters, “are at or near trough and likely turning the corner,” according to The Associated Press.
Morgan Stanley analyst Heidi Wood also upgraded her rating on Textron shares last week to overweight from underweight, saying the company’s stock price could double in two years if its troubled financial unit is successfully unwound, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Bob O’Brien, a stock market columnist at Barron’s magazine, said that “judging by the growing enthusiasm on Wall Street, Textron has turned a corner.”
Textron executives plan to brief investors, analysts, bankers and insurance partners on the company’s financial condition at a meeting in New York City this morning. In July, Textron lowered its full-year revenue forecast to $10.6 billion from the earlier projection of $11 billion after reporting a second-quarter loss of $58 million, or 22 cents a share.
Separately, Textron spokesman Michael Maynard confirmed that the company is in the process of laying off 56 workers at its headquarters in Providence as part of a larger downsizing of its corporate offices worldwide that will result in 139 workers losing their jobs.
“It’s due to the effects of the downturn in the U.S. and global economies,” Maynard told Providence Business News this morning. “We had to make decisions to realign our work force accordingly. We continue to look at all operating expenses within our corporate offices.”
Textron currently has about 400 employees in Providence and nearly 37,000 worldwide, Maynard said.
