Boeing Co. assuaged investors’ fears for the moment on Wednesday, as the aerospace and defense giant’s fourth-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations in all of the key metrics, amid strength in the closely watched commercial-airplanes business.
But a sense of uncertainty remained, as the company did not provide guidance for 2024 in the earnings release or in the investor presentation presented on the website.
Chief Executive Dave Calhoun started a Boeing post-results call with analysts by apologizing to Alaska Airlines and the crew and passengers on flight 1282, which went through a panel blowout mid-flight earlier this month.
“We caused the problem. And we understand that,” Calhoun said.
Going forward, the focus will be on safety and additional quality controls, and Boeing “will go slow to go fast,” and will reward employees for speaking up and slowing down if that’s needed, the executive said.
The stock
BA,
rose more than 6% on Wednesday, on pace for its best one-day percentage increase since July 26, when it rose nearly 9%. It had closed Tuesday at the lowest price since Nov. 10, after tumbling 19.5% since the in-flight blowout of a panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane led to groundings of aircraft.
“The full ramifications of the latest MAX safety issues have yet to be felt, and we see it as telling that Boeing has not provided any update on its outlook or guidance in this morning’s release,” analyst Robert Stallard at Vertical Research Partners wrote in a note to clients.
Net losses narrowed to $2.22 billion, or $3.67 a share, from $4.94 billion, or $8.30 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as pension-related costs, core per-share losses of 47 cents beat the FactSet loss consensus of 78 cents.
Revenue grew 10.2% to $22.02 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $21.14 billion.
Within the Commercial Airplanes business segment, revenue increased 13.1% to $10.48 billion to beat the FactSet consensus of $9.98 billion.
The segment also swung to earnings from operations of $41 million, from a loss of $603 million last year, while operating margins improved to positive 0.4% from negative 6.5%.
The company said Commercial Airplanes was taking “immediate actions” to strengthen quality of the 737 program, including requiring additional inspections within its factory and at its suppliers.
Meanwhile, the company said the 737 program continues to deliver airplanes and the production rate is currently 38 planes a month, which compares with fourth-quarter deliveries of 157.
Elsewhere, Defense, Space & Security revenue was up 9.1% to $6.75 billion, above expectations of $6.16 billion, and Global Services revenue rose 6.2% to $4.85 billion to top forecasts of $4.83 billion.
Free cash flow of $2.95 billion was well above the FactSet consensus of $1.91 billion.
The stock has tumbled 20.5% in January, but has gained 10.9% over the past three months. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
has tacked on 2.4% this month and has rallied 16.7% in the past three months.
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