Boeing (BA 5.29%) shares powered ahead 6.3% through 11:30 a.m. ET after beating earnings on Wednesday morning.
Analysts had forecast the defense and aerospace giant would lose $0.72 per share, adjusted for one-time items, on sales of $19.5 billion. As it turned out, Boeing lost “only” $0.47 per share — and its sales were billions ahead of expectations: $22 billion collected in Q4.
Boeing sales and earnings in 2023
Boeing delivered 157 commercial airplanes to its customers in Q4 and recorded net orders for 611 aircraft, indicating strong prospects for future sales growth. Quarterly revenue rose 10% at the company, year over year. Operating profit margin and operating earnings flipped from negative to positive.
On the bottom line, Boeing still ended up losing money for the quarter. However, when calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), its loss looked much better than either of the “adjusted” numbers noted above.
Boeing lost $1.06 per share on a GAAP basis a year ago. Q4 2023 losses were a mere $0.04 per share.
Boeing in 2024
Make no mistake: Boeing still has a lot of issues to deal with as it struggles to handle the fallout of its latest PR disaster. (It’s not going to make it easier to sell airplanes if your planes have a reputation for parts falling off at 16,000 feet). But Boeing did great in Q4 2023, financially speaking, continuing a trend of improving numbers throughout the year.
For all of 2023, Boeing showed 17% sales growth and a $3.67 per-share loss. But this loss was less than half as big as 2022’s loss — and operating cash flow was up 70%.
The trick now will be for Boeing to respond quickly and decisively to nip its latest scandal in the bud and maintain the momentum it gathered in 2023. In that regard, CEO Dave Calhoun said his “full focus is on taking comprehensive actions to strengthen quality at Boeing.” The company is “taking immediate actions to strengthen quality on the 737 program, including requiring additional inspections within its factory and at key suppliers, supporting expanded oversight from airline customers and pausing 737 production for one day to refocus its employees on quality.”
The downside of this for investors is that while Boeing goes all-hands-in fixing quality, it’s going silent on its numbers for a time. While saying it’s still confident it can hit its financial targets for 2025 and 2026, management declined to give any guidance for either sales or earnings in 2024.
For the next few quarters, at least, while Boeing fixes its 737s, investors are just going to have to get comfortable flying blind.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
