Boeing’s profit beat eclipses 737 snarl
CHICAGO: Boeing topped analysts’ forecasts for quarterly profit on Wednesday despite a series of charges on US military programmes and raised its forecasts for annual profit as it continued to benefit from a boom in global air travel and airplanes.
Shares of the world’s biggest planemaker were up 4.5 per cent in pre-market trading, helping brighten the mood on Wall Street after a handful of shaky results from US manufacturers hurt by concerns over global trade.
Soaring demand from commercial airlines has driven another surge in revenues for Boeing over the past year, pushing shares in the company up by roughly a third over the past 12 months.
Those moves have been dented somewhat by a combination of the trade worries, this year’s greater market volatility and a series of recurring charges for its delay-plagued KC-46 tanker programme.
Boeing recorded another $176 million in charges in the quarter on the aerial refuelling tanker, bringing the total cost of the programme to more than $3 billion.
It also took a charge of $691 million related to the MQ25 refuelling drone and T-X training jet contracts it won in August and September, offset in part by a $412 million tax benefit.
CEO Dennis Muilenburg played up the new T-X and MQ25 business and completion of a static test model of its forthcoming 777X widebody, with two test flight jetliners in production.