CHICAGO (Reuters) - Navistar International Corp , the U.S. truck and engine maker, said on Wednesday it swung to a better-than expected quarterly profit, sending shares up more than 10 percent.
The latest results were helped by strong sales of specialized vehicles to the military, a relatively new but fast-growing business for the company.
The Warrenville, Illinois-based company also reaffirmed its full-year profit and sales forecast, but cut its projection for full-year industry retail sales for trucks and buses in the United States and Canada.
The company reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $234 million, or $3.27 a share, versus a net loss of $65 million, or 92 cents a share, last year.
Sales were little changed at $2.97 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of $1.63 a share on sales of $3.27 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Navistar now expects the industry to sell between 210,000 to 225,000 trucks and buses in the U.S. and Canada in the year ending October 31, down from the previous forecast of 244,000 to 256,000 units.
The company reported a manufacturing segment profit of $407 million, including the impact of a settlement it announced in January with Ford Motor Co
In January, the companies settled a dispute, effectively dissolving a 30-year partnership over the truck, a top-selling vehicle in the U.S. market.
As a result, Navistar will close the Indianapolis engine plant and foundry where the F-150 powerplants were made, a move that will eliminate 700 jobs.
The company's shares traded at $24.40 when the results were released less than an hour before the market closed, and ended at $26.42, up $2.47 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by James Kelleher)