CHICAGO (Bloomberg) - Ingersoll-Rand Co. posted a narrower first-quarter loss than analysts estimated as the maker of Thermo King and Hussmann refrigeration equipment cut jobs and closed factories to help control costs.

The net loss of $26.7 million, or eight cents a share, compared with net income of $181.6 million, or 66 cents, a year earlier, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said in a statement yesterday. The loss excluding some costs was four cents a share, narrower than the 15-cent average estimate of 16 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

CEO Herb Henkel, 61, has cut the dividend by more than half to seven cents, trimmed 2,700 jobs and closed 34 facilities as sales for products from air conditioners to golf carts fall in the longest US recession in a quarter century. On the cusp of the recession in 2007, he sold the company's Bobcat construction equipment and road-building units.

Ingersoll-Rand rose $2.26, or 14 percent, to $18.99 at 11.07 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had fallen 64 percent in the 12 months before yesterday.

Sales increased 36 percent to $2.93 billion including revenue from last year's purchase of air-conditioner maker Trane Inc. Savings from the restructuring program and the integration of Trane, which it purchased in June, helped the bottom line, Mr. Henkel said in the statement.

Closing factories and trimming jobs will generate $160 million in annual gross pre-tax savings in 2009 and $200 million in 2010, Mr. Henkel said. Trane's integration will produce 300 million of cumulative savings in 2009, he said.

The company lowered the top end of its 2009 forecast to $1.90 a share from its February prediction of $2.25. It may make as little as a $1.40 a share, the amount it forecast in March. The average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was $1.37 a share.

Ingersoll-Rand sold its Bobcat equipment business to South Korea's Doosan Infracore Co. and its road-building unit to Volvo AB in 2007 and still carries some related pension costs on its books.

The company announced its move from Bermuda to Ireland on March 6, citing its expanding international operations and Ireland's legal system as among the reasons. Its move to Ireland is set for midyear, pending approval from shareholders.