* Q3 EPS $0.11 vs. est. $0.03
* Q3 sales up 57%
* Says bond repurchase to hurt Q4
* Shares up about 14%, touch year high
Titan International Inc (TWI.N) sees strong income from operations in the fourth quarter on improving demand for its agricultural products, which helped it post a third-quarter profit above market estimates, sending its shares up as much as 14 %.
The company, whose customers include Deere & Co (DE), Caterpillar Inc (CAT) and AGCO Corp (AGCO), is seeing increased demand both in its agricultural and earth moving segments, with the commodity and construction markets picking up.
Quincy, Illinois-based Titan was hurt last year as recession forced many of its major customers to go for extended shutdowns.
"Overall, everything is looking towards a very good year in 2011," Chief Executive Maurice Taylor said in a statement.
However, the company, which supplies tires and assemblies for off-highway vehicles, expects to take a hit in the fourth quarter from the premium it paid to repurchase bonds on Oct. 1.
The company, whose rivals include Carlisle Cos Inc (CSL) and Michelin (MICP), had bought back $138.9 million of senior unsecured notes due 2012.
Q3 Tops Street
For the July-September quarter, the company reported earnings of $4 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $11.1 million, or 32 cents a share, a year ago.
Sales rose 57 % to $222.8 million. Agricultural segment sales rose 62 % to $170.7 million.
Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 3 cents a share, on revenue of $$172.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of Titan, which have risen 23 % since the company reported second-quarter results in July, were trading up 9 % at $15.41 Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. They had touched a year high of $16.05 earlier in the day.
(Reporting by Bijoy Koyitty and Fareha Khan in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair and Maju Samuel)
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