PROVIDENCE – Textron Inc. on Tuesday said its third-quarter profit all but evaporated because of a slump in aircraft sales and defense contract cancellations, but added that its full-year earnings would come in at the high end of its July forecast.

Textron posted a profit of $4 million, or 1 cent a share, in the three months ended Oct. 3, down 98 percent from a year earlier, when the company posted a profit of $206 million, or 83 cents a share. Revenue fell 27 percent to $2.55 billion.

Excluding charges, Textron said it earned a profit from continuing operations of 12 cents a share, beating the average estimate of a 4 cent loss among nine analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

“The demand environment for our commercial products continues to show signs of stabilization, but we believe that market recovery likely will be slow and modest,” Scott Donnelly, Textron’s chief operating officer and CEO-elect, said in a statement. “Therefore, we will maintain our focus on improving operating and working capital productivity, while investing in new product development to spur future growth.”

Textron has shrunk its financial division by more than $3 billion to stave off a liquidity crisis since last year. The company has also cut workers and reduced production at its manufacturing businesses to deal with declining demand for planes and defense work.

The results surprised Wall Street, sending Textron stock up 2 percent to $18.80 in premarket trading on Tuesday morning. The shares have rebounded from a low of $3.57 in March.

“We continue to believe all of Textron’s cyclical businesses … are turning the corner, and that its defense business is well positioned,” Goldman Sachs analyst Noah Poponak wrote in a note to clients quoted by Reuters.

Across its divisions, Textron said Cessna’s profit fell 87 percent on a 42 percent decline in sales; Bell Helicopter’s profit rose 25 percent despite an 11 percent fall in sales; and Textron Systems’ profit gained 25 percent in spite of an 11 percent sales decrease.

“Cessna remains a question mark for the near and intermediate term,” Stephen Levenson, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. with a “hold” rating on Textron shares, wrote in an Oct. 26 note quoted by Bloomberg. “The success of the plan and the overall demand for business jets is critical to improved Textron overall growth.”

The company said it expects adjusted earnings for the year to come in at the high end of its July forecast, which called for a 2009 profit of 33 cents to 63 cents a share on sales of $10.6 billion.