Textron Bell second-quarter revenue rises 13%

Textron Bell second-quarter revenue grew by 13% year-over-year to $794m compared with $701m in the same period last year.

“In the [second] quarter, our team delivered higher revenue, earnings per share, and cash flow,” said Scott C Donnelly, chairman and CEO,  Textron. “At Textron Aviation and Bell, we continued to execute on key programmes, including the Citation Ascend and FLRAA {Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft] .”

Most of the revenue increase in Bell topline segment was due to higher military volume.

“Bell revenues were $794m, up $93m from the second quarter of 2023, largely reflecting higher military volume of $104m, primarily related to the FLRAA programme, partially offset by lower volume on the V-22 programme,” said the company in its earnings release.

However, the segment deliveries in the quarter were down to 32 commercial helicopters from 35 in last year’s second quarter.

In terms of profitability, the segment’s increased by $17m to $82m from last year’s second quarter. The increase came from favourable impact from performance of $39m, which included lower research and development costs, partially offset by mix.

On the other hand, Bell’s backlog at the end of the second quarter fell to $4.2bn from $4.5bn in the first quarter of 2024.

Despite higher topline, the company’s net income declined during the quarter under review to $259m in the second quarter from $263m from last year. The company booked special charges of $13m, which the company said was due to “headcount reductions in the Industrial, Textron Systems and Bell segments.”

This translated in to earnings of $1.35 per share, compared with $1.30 in the second quarter of 2023.