PROVIDENCE – Moody’s Investor’s Service on Tuesday upgraded the debt-rating outlook for Textron Inc. and its finance division, Textron Financial Corp., while keeping the conglomerate’s credit rating unchanged.

Moody’s upgraded Textron’s outlook to “stable” from “negative,” saying the company’s liquidity had improved and Textron Financial was making better-than-expected progress on liquidating assets, The Associated Press reported.

“We estimate cash on hand will be sufficient to cover the substantial portion of the scheduled debt maturities of Textron and TFC through 2011,” Moody’s said. The company has $3 billion in bank credit facilities maturing in April 2012.

In addition, the ratings agency affirmed its Baa3 rating for Textron’s senior unsecured debt and kept its short-term rating at Prime-3.

However, Moody’s warned that Textron’s debt level remains high and that its Cessna unit may not recover quickly even once the broader economy improves. “A positive rating action is unlikely for some time,” the agency said.

Last week, Textron Inc. warned its earnings for 2010 are likely to fall below analysts’ expectations. The company posted an annual loss for 2009 of $31 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a profit of $1.29 a share in 2008. Sales fell 25 percent to $10.5 billion.

Additional information is available at textron.com.