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This article was published 12/5/2017 (1224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New Flyer Industries met or surpassed most of the estimates for its first quarter and has announced the board has agreed to a 36.8 per cent increase in stock dividend.

The Winnipeg bus maker posted a 3.4 per cent increase in revenue for the first quarter to $572.1 million and a 67.8 per cent increase in net earnings to $37.9 million.

The company also updated its 2017 production guidance to 3,750 units, an increase of 6.8 per cent from the year before and about three per cent above earlier guidance.

In a note to investors, Altacorp Capital analyst Chris Murray said, "Management continues to suggest the transit bus market remains ‘robust’ and anticipates stable private-sector demand for motor coaches through 2017."

Unrelated to its first-quarter financial results, New Flyer announced Thursday that it was ending its five-year joint venture with the U.K. firm Alexander Dennis Ltd. for the manufacture and distribution of medium-duty 30-foot and 35-foot MiDi buses.

Since 2014, New Flyer has built and sold 200 MiDi buses that are being used by a community shuttle service and on corporate campuses and universities throughout North America.

The plan is to transition manufacture of the specialized buses from New Flyers’ St. Cloud, Minn., plant to Alexander Dennis’s new facility in Nappanee, Ind., during the fourth quarter of this year.

In an investor note, National Bank Financial analyst Trevor Johnson said, "The MiDi bus is non-core to New Flyer and represents a negligible amount of run-rate (earnings) so termination of this joint venture is immaterial in our view."

Johnson noted that the company increased profitability in both its manufacturing and aftermarket businesses. He said the increased guidance on 2017 production reinforces "the company’s high visibility on new orders and near record US$5.1 billion backlog (which reflects about three years’ worth of buses)."

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca