January 30, 2009

Textron Inc. said Thursday that it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter, as the maker of Cessna airplanes and Bell Helicopters took a slew of charges to exit some of its financial-services businesses.

The company said it lost $209 million, or 87 cents a share, in its fourth quarter, compared to a profit of $256 million, or $1 a share, in the year-ago period.On average, analysts polled by FactSet had a consensus estimate of 2 cents a share in profit for the quarter, but the 10 estimates ranged from a loss of $ 1.39 a share to a profit of 85 cents a share.