While reporting its fiscal 2011 third quarter earnings this morning, Titan Machinery says it expects strong ag conditions to continue into its fourth quarter.

David Meyer, Titan Machinery's chairman and CEO, stated, "We are pleased with our third quarter results, which underscore our ability to capitalize on favorable conditions in the Agriculture industry and improve operating results in the Construction business. In the quarter, the growth in our Agriculture business was driven by a number of factors including favorable harvest conditions and crop yields across our footprint and increased demand for our current tier-three equipment inventory. We also are encouraged by the improved performance of our Construction business, which reflects the success of our ongoing Construction Business Action Plan. The strong revenue growth for both business segments enabled us to offset margin pressure for our equipment sales. Based on our financial results for the first nine months of the year and our outlook for the fourth quarter, we are raising our annual revenue and earnings per share guidance range."

Meyer continued, "As we begin the final quarter of fiscal 2011 and look toward next year, we remain encouraged about the outlook for our business and believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us. We have seen favorable commodity prices in recent months, and this, coupled with decreased global supply, should create a strong operating environment for farmers in our markets. Regarding our Construction business, we decreased our pre-tax segment loss by $1.6 million in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. We will continue to execute on our Construction Business Action Plan and are on track to achieve our goal of 15-20% same store revenue growth as well as improve our bottom line results compared to last year. In addition, as we previously announced, we entered into a new credit agreement, which will lower our borrowing costs and provide our business with ample financial flexibility to support continued long-term profitable growth."

The Company evaluates its financial performance based on its customers' annual production cycles as opposed to a quarterly basis, due to weather fluctuations and the seasonal nature of the customers' businesses. The Company is raising its revenue and net income guidance for the full year ending January 31, 2011. The Company now expects to achieve revenue for the full year ending January 31, 2011 in a range of $970 million to $1.02 billion compared to the previous range of $920 million to $980 million. Net income is now expected to be in the range of $17.2 million to $18.6 million resulting in an earnings per diluted share range of $0.95 to $1.03 compared to previous guidance of $16.7 million to $18.5 million and earnings per diluted share range of $0.92 to $1.02. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2011 are estimated to be approximately 18.1 million.