Boeing (BA) will report third quarter earnings before the bell on Wednesday, amid CEO Kelly Ortberg’s turnaround of the troubled aviation giant. It is expected he’ll discuss some big issues for investors such as increasing the pace of deliveries, and reducing cash burn.
Boeing is expected to report Q3 revenue of $22.29 billion per Bloomberg consensus, higher than last quarter’s $21.68 billion and a 3.5% jump from a year ago, which coincided with Ortberg’s start as CEO in August of last year.
Boeing is still expected to report an adjusted EPS loss of $4.92, with an adjusted net income loss of $3.32 billion. A year ago, Boeing reported a staggering net loss of $6.17 billion, and cash flow burn of $1.34 billion.
At the time Boeing was hit by losses from a strike of its biggest machinists union, while trying to ramp up deliveries that were slowed due to several quality issues. Case in point: Alaska Airlines’ door plug blowout last January.
A year later, Boeing’s progress under Ortberg has been substantial; it’s stock is up 27% year to date.
Earlier this month Boeing announced Q3 commercial deliveries hit 160 jets vs the 150 delivered last quarter—and 116 delivered in the same quarter a year-ago. Of Q3 deliveries, 121 were 737 Max jets (compared to 92 delivered a year ago), 24 of the 787 jet (14 last year), nine 777s (four last year) and six 767s (six last year).
One negative note: Boeing’s latest widebody jet, the 777X, is still behind schedule and not yet certified by regulators. Analysts expect Boeing to report a significant charge due to the delays with the jet.
As for cranking up sales of its best-selling 737 Max, the FAA recently approved Boeing to raise its 737 MAX production rate from 38 to 42 aircraft per month after the planemaker met certain milestones for manufacturing and safety. Ortberg said in late May that Boeing’s goal was to be in a position at the end of the year to review readiness for a rate of 47 a month, with that production increase likely coming in sometime in 2026.
One hiccup in Boeing future performance could be its defense business. Boeing defense workers at its plant in St. Louis rejected the company’s latest contract proposal on Sunday, sending a strike into its 13th week.
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 837 said Boeing failed to meet the demands of the nearly 3,200 union members on strike.
As for future commercial deliveries, Boeing snagged a number of big deals in Q3 with Norwegian Group, Turkish Airlines, WestJet, and Korean Air among others.
