A Boeing 737 MAX 10 airliner taxis at Boeing Field after its first flight on June 18, 2021 in Seattle, Washington.
Ellen Banner-Pool/Getty Images
Commercial aerospace giant Boeing reported a surprise profit for the second quarter of 2021. Shares, for now, are moving higher.
Boeing (ticker: BA) reported a profit of 40 cents a share from $17 billion in sales. Wall Street was looking for an 83 cent loss from $16.6 billion in sales. Not a single analyst was predicting a quarterly profit, according to FactSet. It’s a shocking result.
Shares are up 4.2% in premarket trading. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are both close to flat in Wednesday trading.
It’s a good result considering the problems Boeing has been dealing with including Covid-19, the 737 MAX grounding and recertification as well as 787 quality problems which have stopped deliveries of those jets. What’s more, Boeing burned through about $700 million in cash during the quarter. Far less than the $2.8 billion Wall Street projected.
“We continued to make important progress in the second quarter as we focus on driving stability across our operations and transforming our business for the future,” said CEO Dave Calhoun in the company’s news release. “While our commercial market environment is improving, we’re closely monitoring COVID-19 case rates, vaccine distribution and global trade as key indicators for our industry’s stability.”
Profit margins improved compared with the first quarter. In commercial aerospace, Boeing delivered 79 planes in the second quarter compared with 77 in the first quarter. Just two more. The operating loss, however, was cut from $856 million in the first quarter to $472 million in the second.
Defense division profit margins went to 13.9% from 5.6%. Service division margins went to 13.1% from 11.9%.
Boeing hosts a conference call at 10:30 a.m. eastern to discuss results. The pace of improvement will be a big top on investors’ and analysts’ minds.
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