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Airbus shares rise as higher profits, cash flow offset impact of new A400M charge

PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in Airbus rose on Thursday, as traders and analysts said that a positive reaction to higher earnings and free cash flow at the planemaker had helped offset Airbus' latest charge for its A400M military transport plane.

Airbus shares were up 8.1 percent at 91 euros in early session trading, close to their earlier record high of 94 euros reached last month. The stock was also the top performer on France's benchmark CAC-40 index.

Airbus took a new 1.3 billion euro ($1.62 billion) hit on its A400M military transport plane, but also posted adjusted 2017 operating profit of 4.253 billion euros on revenues of 66.767 billion euros and predicted a 20 percent rise in the widely watched core profit item.

"Airbus reported strong 2017 numbers for adjusted EBIT, net income and free cash flow which were clearly ahead of our estimates," wrote German bank Bankhaus Lampe, which kept a "buy" rating on Airbus shares.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-GuptaEditing by Bate Felix)