Topic: How To Invest

Good Day Pat: I was looking at Northstar Aerospace and wondering what your thoughts are.

Article Excerpt

Northstar Aerospace Inc., $2.45, symbol NAS on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 29.9 million; Market cap: $73.2 million; www.nsaero.com), makes a wide variety of parts for airplanes and helicopters, including gears, gearboxes, rotor shafts and transmissions. The company is based in Chicago, but it has plants in Ontario, Illinois, Indiana and Arizona. Sales to military-related customers, such as the U.S. Department of Defense and Boeing, accounted for 74% of Northstar’s 2010 sales. The remaining 26% came from commercial-aircraft customers, such as General Electric Aviation, Honeywell and Rolls-Royce. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Northstar’s sales rose 22.3%, to $65.7 million from $53.7 million a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Defense sales rose 17.5%, and commercial sales rose 35.9%. However, earnings fell 28.2%, to $2.8 million, or $0.11 a share, from $3.9 million, or $0.15 a share. That’s mainly because the company is making little profit on a current defense contract. Northstar expects to complete this…