Cessna has had no business jet order cancellations for the coming year. According to MarketWatch, however, the good news does not extend beyond 2010 and there are cancellations in 2011 and later. It quoted Scott Donnelly, incoming CEO of Cessna’s parent company Textron, as saying the future cancellations are “reflecting customer uncertainty … three years out in the future.” Combining that with a few new orders, Donnelly is predicting Cessna will build 275 business jets and possibly “a few more” in 2010. Textron also stayed in the black in the third quarter, if just barely.
Textron posted a profit of $4 million in the previous three months, translating to a penny a share. That’s down from $206 million, or 83 cents a share, from the same period last year. Still that was good news for investors because most analysts thought Textron would fare much worse. Share prices shot up more than six percent after the announcement to $19.50 a share and analysts are predicting the stock will hit $25.
