1100 N. Wood Dale Rd., Wood Dale 60191; 630-227-2000
Web site: www.aarcorp.com
Founded: 1951
Employees: 2,120; 400 in Illinois
Year-end: May 31
Foreign sales: 35 percent of $589.3 million
Chief executive: David P. Storch, 44, since 1996
Cash compensation: $965,200, up 37 percent
Options granted: $2,515,578, up 205 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: $1,262,035
Shares owned: 300,927 of 18.3 million
Largest shareholder: Prudential Insurance Co. of America, 7 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15
High: $32.41
Low: $19.41
April 15: $28.75
April 17, 1998, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased 1997: $1,425
Purchased 1993: $3,741
AAR Corp. is becoming the dominant company within its sector that purchases, sells and leases jet aircraft, airframes, and engines and parts. It also provides inventory and maintenance support.
Foreign sales, which rose nearly 40 percent last year, are becoming an increasingly important part of the company’s operations as it moves to expand services to foreign airlines.
In February, the company paid a three-for-two stock split as sales have soared. Construction of a new maintenance hangar in Oklahoma City is nearing completion.
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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. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find:
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1997, 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.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, and the change from the prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the value of options granted is based on an assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth, or is determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which these calculations are based is April 17. 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.
– Bloomberg News, New York.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
