Boeing increased its EPS guidance once again for the 2014 fiscal year from a prior range of $7.90 to $8.10 to a new range of $8.10 to $8.30. The company continues to expect full-year revenue in the range of $87.5 billion to $90.5 billion. The consensus estimates for 2014 before the report called for EPS of $8.28 on revenues of $89.6 billion.
Boeing delivered 186 new commercial aircraft in the second quarter, up 9% from 170 deliveries in the second quarter, and took orders for a net 501 more planes, up from 264 orders in the prior quarter. The huge increase reflects orders written at the Farnborough Air show in September.
Operating margin in the commercial division slipped by 0.4% to 11.2%, compared with the third quarter a year ago. Earnings from commercial aircraft sales rose by 11% in the quarter.
The forecast for commercial aircraft deliveries in 2014 was affirmed at 715 to 725. The total includes approximately 110 of the company’s 787 Dreamliners.
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Boeing’s CEO said:
Continued strong operating performance across our production and services businesses drove significant growth in earnings-per-share, and enabled us to continue to capture new business, pushing our order backlog to a record $490 billion. We added net new orders for 501 commercial airplanes, launched the high-capacity 737 MAX 200, captured a NASA contract for the Commercial Crew program, and returned $1.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Tuesday Boeing broke ground on its new wing fabrication plant for the 777X. The company said it will invest more than $1 billion in the million-square foot building, which is expected to be complete in May 2016. The state of Washington gave the company $8.7 billion in incentives to build the plant in the state, and the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted in January to accept a contract offer it had already rejected in order to keep the plant and the jobs in Washington. First delivery of the 777X is scheduled for 2020.
Boeing’s defense and space division revenues were down 2% year-over-year, but margins rose 2.4% to 10.8%. For the full year, Boeing’s revenue forecast for the division is unchanged at $30 billion to $31 billion. However, expected revenue from military aircraft has dropped from $14.2 billion to $13.7 billion and the service and support revenue estimate rose from $8.6 billion to $9.1 billion.
Boeing’s shares were up about 1.5% in premarket trading Wednesday to $129.00, in a 52-week range of $116.32 to $144.57. The consensus target price for the shares was around $153.20 before the report.
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