UPDATE: Barrington Research Upgrades Oshkosh on Profit Margin Improvement Forecast

In a report published Monday, Barrington Research analyst Rudolf A. Hokanson upgraded Oshkosh OSK from Market Perform to Outperform, and named a $50.00 price target.

In the report, Barrington Research noted, “Oshkosh Corp. is focused on growth of their non-Defense businesses in both sales and profitability. While always important, the company understands that given current budget and political agendas, its Defense Segment is likely to have more stress over the next several years. The CEO has held his position since the end of 2010 and he has his management team in place. They are intent on maximizing their global opportunities and profitability of their Access, Fire and Emergency and Commercial Segments. We believe management will be able to have non-Defense businesses grow at CAGR of about 10% from 2012-2015 and to see important margin improvement. Our forecast for operating profit margin improvement is from under 5% for fiscal 2012 (September) to 9.2% by fiscal 2015. The company is innovative and has a special niche across its product lines with the design and durability of its equipment. New product sales, upgrades and updates as well as replacement parts all support revenue growth. Eventually, we believe Defense will recover, but it is not necessary for the company to put in solid performance prior to that.”

Oshkosh closed on Friday at $38.49.