Oshkosh Corp. receives $195M vehicle order

Hundreds of JLTVs, thousands of armor kits are fifth order for company’s 2015 contract

Oshkosh Corp. has received a $195 million order for hundreds of U.S. Army vehicles under a contract the company won in 2015.

The fifth order under the contract is for 748 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and several thousand vehicle armor kits.

The JLTV is a bigger, more powerful sequel to the military Humvee, which has been a troop carrier for decades but wasn’t designed for protection against improvised explosive devices that have killed many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army and Marines plan to buy thousands of the JLTVs at a cost of about $250,000 each, supporting many years of work in Oshkosh. The Army plans to begin fielding the first of the vehicles in 2019. The program is in low-rate initial production, with full-rate production expected to begin in the military’s 2019 fiscal year.

Also Wednesday, Oshkosh Corp. reported a third-quarter profit of $128.6 million, or $1.69 per share, up nearly 53% from the same period a year earlier.

The maker of military and commercial vehicles had $2.04 billion in revenue in the recent quarter, ended June 30, up nearly 17% from a year earlier.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.33 per share.

Oshkosh now expects fullyear earnings in the range of $3.33 to $3.43 per diluted share.

The company’s shares have climbed about 6% since the beginning of the year and 27% in the last 12 months.

Wednesday, the shares closed at $72.39, up $3.68.