Dahlman Rose Comments On Aircastle Limited Following Earnings Report

Aircastle Limited AYR reported 4Q10 adjusted EPS of $0.18 vs $0.27 last
year and Dahlman Rose's estimate of $0.23 due to the impact of aircraft acquisitions net of disposals. Dahlman is estimating 2011 EPS of $1.12 with a very strong 1Q11 due to higher maintenance revenue.

Aircastle reported 4Q10 net income of $20.2 million down slightly from 4Q09 net income of $23 million due to lower revenues, higher depreciation and higher adjusted interest expense partially offset by lower maintenance and other costs. Excluding one time items, EPS was $0.18 vs $0.27 in 4Q09. Aircastle's fleet utilization rate was 99% in 4Q10 and for the full year and is expected to be 98% in 2011.

Aircastle's Board of Directors authorized a $60 million share repurchase program, which would be approximately 5.0 million shares at current prices. This represents approximately 6% of the outstanding shares. The company declared its regular quarterly dividend of $0.10/ share payable April 15 to shareholders of record April 8; the shares are yielding 3.4%, representing a total return of 13.7% to our $13 price target.

AYR is trading higher at $11.94