Boeing beats Street estimates for Q1 despite ongoing issues

Boeing Co (NYSE: BA) is trading up in premarket on Wednesday after coming in ahead of Street estimates for its fiscal first quarter.

Why else is Boeing stock up on Wednesday?

Shareholders are content also because the aerospace giant expressed confidence that its supply chain is now stabilising. Dave Calhoun – the chief executive of Boeing Co told employees today:

We are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to make certain our regulators, customers, employees, and the flying public are 100 percent confident in Boeing.

$BA grew its backlog in the recently concluded quarter to $529 billion. On the downside, though, both commercial aeroplanes and defense, space, and security businesses of the New York listed behemoth were in loss in Q1.

Boeing stock is now down roughly 30% versus the start of 2024. 

Boeing Q1 earnings snapshot

• Lost $355 million versus the year-ago $425 million
• Per-share loss also narrowed from 69 cents to 56 cents
• Adjusted loss printed at $1.13 as per the earnings report
• Revenue jumped 8.0% year-over-year to $16.57 billion
• Consensus was $1.76 a share loss on $16.23 billion in revenue

Boeing reported $3.9 billion in free cash flow for Q1 – up significantly from $786 million in the same quarter last year. CEO Calhoun also said in a press release on Wednesday:

Our first quarter results reflect the immediate actions we’ve taken to slow down 737 production to drive improvements in quality

Boeing took a big hit to deliveries in Q1

Earlier in April, Boeing said it delivered 83 planes in total in the first quarter – down a whopping 47% versus last year as Invezz reported here. According to the chief executive, though:

We will take the time necessary to strengthen our quality and safety management systems and this work will position us for a stronger and more stable future.

Note that Dave Calhoun has already announced plans of stepping down as the chief executive of $BA at the end of this year. A recent report suggests its director Dave Gitlin (CEO of Carrier Global) is an excellent candidate for the top role at the company based out of Arlington County, Virginia.

Despite its ongoing struggles, Wall Street continues to rate Boeing shares at “overweight”.