AAR shares rise on higher preliminary profit

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WOOD DALE — Aircraft maintenance and services supplier AAR Corp. rose the most in almost two months after the company announced preliminary first-quarter profit that beat estimates.

Shares of the company jumped as much as 13 percent to $16.46, the biggest intraday gain since July 18. They were trading at $16.25 as of 11 a.m. in New York.

The company yesterday estimated earnings per share of 42 cents to 45 cents in the quarter ended Aug. 31. Analysts had anticipated profit of 32 cents a share, the average of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

"We continued to achieve market share gains in our commercial services businesses while delivering financial and operational improvements in our defense services businesses," Chief Executive Officer David Storch said in a statement.

Sales to commercial customers are anticipated to increase by approximately 40 percent, which includes approximately 13 percent organic growth. The balance of the commercial sales growth is expected to come from Telair and Nordisk, which were acquired in December 2011.

Sales to government and defense customers are expected to be essentially unchanged from the first quarter of last year. For the first quarter, sales to commercial customers are expected to comprise 58 percent of consolidated sales, and sales to government and defense customers are expected to comprise 42 percent of consolidated sales, the company said in a release.