CPI Aero revenue triples; 4Q 'best' yet

The Edgewood-based aircraft parts maker CPI Aerostructures Inc. reported its fourth-quarter revenue tripled to $24 million, as the company swung from a loss a year earlier to a quarterly profit of $2.67 million.

For all of 2011, revenue rose nearly 70 percent, with a sharp increase in annual profit, primarily due to subcontracting work for Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Gulfstream.

Edward J. Fred, CPI Aerostructures president and chief executive, said 2011's fourth quarter was "the best" in the company's history "in terms of revenue and net income."

Net profit for CPI Aero, in business for about three decades and one of Long Island's few remaining aircraft parts companies, was $7.4 million on sales of $74.1 million for 2011, up from a net profit of $529,896 on revenue of $43.9 million the previous year.

Income per diluted share also grew strongly, with earnings of $1.04 per share in 2011 compared to earnings of 8 cents a share in 2010.

Fred said the gains should continue. "We started 2012 on a strong note with year-to-date contract awards totaling $28.1 million, as compared to $22.3 million in the same period of last year." The company reiterated its guidance for 2012 revenue to be between $95 million and $98 million.

In a separate category of potential business, Fred said, "solicitations not yet awarded totaled a maximum realizable value of about $282 million" as of Feb. 29.

Much of 2011's growth took place in the fourth quarter, fueled by its work on three major subcontracting jobs it got in 2008, for the Gulfstream G650, Boeing A-10 and Northrop Grumman E-2D, he said.

Shares of CPI Aero rose 8 cents to $14.78 in the Nasdaq Stock Market.