missed Wall Street estimates again. But by a lot less than usual. Shares are up.
Boeing (ticker: BA) reported a first quarter per share loss of $1.27 from $17.9 billion in sales, Wednesday morning. Wall Street was looking a per-share loss of $1.07 and sales of $17.6 billion.
For the same period a year ago,
reported a per-share loss of $2.75 from sales of $14 billion.
It’s the fourteenth time in the past 17 quarters that Boeing has missed bottom line estimates. In comparison, the company’s rival,
(AIR.France), has missed estimates in three of the past 16 quarters.
The current miss for Boeing, however, isn’t all that large given all the headwinds the company is facing. Earnings are still recovering from the dual problems of the 737 MAX grounding and impact of Covid-19. The airline maker has also had delivery and quality issues with its 787 Dreamliner jets.
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Boeing shares are up 3.6% in premarket trading at $209.41. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are both flat.
For its first quarter, the company delivered 130 jets overall, a little better than the 120 Wall Street had forecast and more than the 95 jets it delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
Commercial aviation sales were up to $6.7 billion from $4.2 billion in the year ago quarter. That business segment isn’t generating profit yet though. The operating loss came in at $615 million.
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Boeing still expects to deliver between 400 and 450 MAX jets in 2023 which means production rates will be rising to about 38 a month at some point this year.
Defense revenue also rose year over year, hitting $6.5 billion, up from $5.5 billion. The operating loss came in at $212 million, but the results included a $245 million charge for the KC-46A tanker program.
Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard didn’t expect an earnings beat and predicted more one-time charges like the tanker expense.
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He recommended focusing on cash flow. Free cash flow was negative $800 million in the quarter. Wall Street expected first-quarter free cash flow of roughly positive $1 billion. But Boeing didn’t change its full year free cash flow guidance. The company still expects to generate free cash flow between $3 billion and $5 billion.
Overall the quarter was pretty much as expected, which is a relief to investors.
Boeing hosts a conference call at 10:30 a.m. ET to discuss results. Earnings, cash flow, production rates, and demand for new plane orders will all be topics of discussion.
Boeing stock has risen about 15% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 5% and 1%, respectively. An improving outlook for air travel as the world moves on from Covid is one reason for improving investor sentiment.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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Read More: Boeing Missed Earnings Estimates Again. The Stock Is Rising.
