The Boeing Company has reported second-quarter revenue of $17.0 billion, driven by higher commercial airplanes and services volume with GAAP earnings per share of $1.00 and core earnings per share of $0.40 on commercial volume and lower period costs.
That bullish result has pushed its shares up 6 per cent to $235.70.
The company recorded core operating earnings of $755 million in the quarter compared to a loss of $3.319 billion in the year-ago quarter.
“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 Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun.
“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. As we continue to position for a robust recovery, we remain committed to safety and quality, while investing in our people, products, and technology. I am proud of our team’s resilience and commitment as we work to rebuild trust, improve our performance and deliver for our commercial, defense, space, and services customers.”
Boeing said its operating cash flow improved to ($0.5) billion in the quarter, driven by higher commercial deliveries, higher-order receipts, and lower expenditures.
Analysts Bernstein said this was a very good result and significantly above the consensus estimate of -$2.8bn.
“We continue to view cash flow as more important than reported earnings, due to the
effects of program accounting. Better than expected FCF came primarily from working capital changes, with cash coming in from MAX deliveries, less cash out for widebody inventory, PDPs coming in for new orders, and lower compensation payments,” Bernstein said.
Boeing said Commercial Airplane’s second-quarter revenue increased to $6.0 billion primarily driven by higher commercial airplane deliveries. The second-quarter operating margin improved to (7.8) percent, primarily due to lower period costs as well as higher delivery volume.
Since the FAA’s approval to return the 737 MAX to operations in November 2020, Boeing has delivered more than 130 737 MAX aircraft and airlines have returned more than 190 previously grounded airplanes to service.
Over 30 airlines are now operating the 737 MAX, flying nearly 95,000 revenue flights totaling more than 218,000 flight hours (as of July 25, 2021) said Boeing.
It reports that the 737 program is currently producing at a rate of approximately 16 per month and continues to expect to gradually increase production to 31 per month in early 2022 with further gradual increases to correspond with market demand.
Boeing said it is conducting inspections and rework and continues to engage in detailed discussions with the FAA on verification methodology for 787. Boeing announced earlier this month that it has identified additional rework that will be required on undelivered 787s.
Commercial Airplanes delivered 79 airplanes during the quarter and the backlog included over 4,100 airplanes valued at $285 billion.
Defense, Space & Security second-quarter revenue increased to $6.9 billion driven by higher KC-46A Tanker and P-8A Poseidon volume.
Backlog at Defense, Space & Security was $59 billion, of which 32 percent represents orders from customers outside the U.S.
Global Services second-quarter revenue increased to $4.1 billion and second-quarter operating margin increased to 13.1 percent primarily driven by higher commercial services volume.
