Rockwell, TRW Show Sharp Rise in Profits : Earnings: Results are achieved despite defense and aerospace weakness, delighting Wall Street.

Rockwell International Corp. and TRW Inc. posted sharply higher profits for the first quarter Monday despite earnings weakness at their aerospace and defense groups.

The results underscored the two diversified companies’ increasing reliance on commercial goods to generate growth while their aerospace lines continue to grapple with slumping U.S. spending on space and defense.

Rockwell, for instance, now garners nearly three-quarters of its sales from commercial and international markets, Chairman Donald R. Beall noted in a telephone interview.

The earnings gains delighted Wall Street. TRW’s stock soared $4.125 a share, to $72.25, and Rockwell’s climbed $1.875 a share, to $41.875, both in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Rockwell, based in Seal Beach, said its fiscal second-quarter net income climbed 24% to $191.4 million, or 88 cents a share, from $154.7 million, or 70 cents, a year earlier. Its sales rose 21% to $3.36 billion from $2.76 billion.

Rockwell’s industrial-automation equipment, aided by its recent purchase of Reliance Electric Co., and its automotive components and graphics systems paced the gains.

Operating profit at its avionics, telecommunications and defense-electronics division fell 11%, but Beall blamed the decline on one-time costs related to launching new products at the telecommunications group. Still, Rockwell’s aerospace group had a 9% drop in operating profit.

Beall said “the real drivers” of Rockwell’s growth are its automotive, automation, avionics and telecommunications lines. But he said its venerable aerospace operations remain “sizable businesses” that generate “excellent cash flow and technology that we use elsewhere” in the company.

For the six months ended March 31, Rockwell’s profit rose 17% to $356.1 million, or $1.64 a share, from $304.2 million, or $1.38 a share, a year earlier. Its six-month sales climbed to $5.98 billion from $5.36 billion.

Surging sales of TRW’s automotive components lifted the Cleveland-based company’s profit 79%, to a quarterly record $115 million, or $1.72 a share, from $64.1 million, or 97 cents, a year earlier. TRW’s sales climbed 20%, to $2.6 billion from $2.16 billion.

The improvement reflected strong sales of TRW’s air-bag and seat-belt restraints and auto steering systems, which benefited from robust auto sales in the United States and Europe and auto makers’ increasing use of multiple air bags per vehicle.

But operating profits at TRW’s space group--a Redondo Beach-based builder of satellites and other space gear--dipped to $45.3 million from $46.2 million, while its sales edged up 4% to $705.8 million from $680.7 million.

Nonetheless, the space division is “extremely healthy,” TRW Chairman Joseph T. Gorman asserted in a telephone interview. Its sales are growing again after a prolonged slide, and the cash generated by TRW’s thriving auto-parts business is enabling TRW to consider potential acquisitions to expand the space division, he said.

“I’m not predicting that,” Gorman said, “but we’re allowing ourselves to look.”