1100 N. Wood Dale Rd., Wood Dale 60191; 630-227-2000
Website: None
Founded: 1951
Employees: 2,212; 382 in Illinois
Year-end: May 31
Foreign sales: 29 percent of $505 million
Chief executive: David P. Storch, 44, since 1996
Cash compensation: $705,800, up 25 percent
Options granted: $825,424, up 59.1 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: None
Shares owned: 191,260 of 16.1 million
Largest shareholder: The Prudential Insurance Co. of America, 7.8 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15, 1997
High: $31.25
Low: $17.75
April 15: $30.50
April 18, 1997 value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased April 18, 1996: $1,575
Purchased April 18, 1992: $2,463
AAR Corp., which moved its headquarters from Elk Grove Village to Wood Dale last year, purchases, sells and leases aircraft engines and parts, airframes and jet aircraft, in addition to providing inventory and maintenance support.
With airlines flying more aircraft and needing to cut costs, they have outsourced more services to AAR, which led to record sales of $505 million in its last fiscal year.
AAR is continuing to benefit from the strength of the airline industry and airlines contracting more service with outside companies. As a result, AAR’s earnings growth should remain strong, analysts say.
———-
A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 15, 1997. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find.
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1996, along with the change from the prior year.
– The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
– The company’s largest shareholder, as listed in the proxy statement.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, as reported in the proxy statement, and the change from the prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the current value of options granted is based on the assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which those calculations are based is April 18. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Dow Jones News/Retrieval, an on-line service of Dow Jones & Co., New York.
– Bloomberg Business News, New York.
– TMS Stocks, a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services Inc., a unit of Tribune Co., Chicago.
– Morningstar Inc., Chicago.
– “First Chicago Guide,” published by Scholl Communications, Deerfield.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
