NEW YORK - US aerospace giant Boeing reported Wednesday first-quarter net profit soared 38 percent from a year ago and reaffirmed its 2015 forecasts for financial results and deliveries.
A Qantas Boeing 747 carries out a fly past at the Formula One Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 15, 2015
Net earnings totaled $1.34 billion in the first three months of the year, compared with $965 million in the 2014 first quarter. Adjusted earnings of $1.97 per share came in well above Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.81.
Higher commercial aircraft deliveries pushed revenue to $22.15 billion, up eight percent from a year ago but slightly below the $22.49 billion analysts expected.
"The strong operational and financial performance reinforces our ability to continue providing competitive returns for our shareholders while investing in technology and our people," said Boeing chairman and chief executive Jim McNerney in a statement.
The Boeing Company said it ended the first quarter with a $9.6 billion cash cushion, after repurchasing 17 million shares for $2.5 billion and raising dividends by about 25 percent compared with a year ago. The company planned to repurchase the remaining $9.5 billion shares in its buyback program over the next two to three years.
The Chicago-based company finished the first quarter with a total company backlog of $495 billion, including more than 5,700 jetliner orders.
During the first quarter, deliveries rose 14 percent to 184 jetliners, lifting the Commercial Airplanes segment's revenue by 21 percent to $15.4 billion. Boeing booked 110 net orders for jetliners, with almost half of them for its new version of the best-selling 737 workhorse, the 737 MAX.
Boeing's much smaller Defense, Space & Security business saw revenue fall 12 percent from a year ago to $6.71 billion amid US defense spending cutbacks. About a third of its backlog represented orders from international customers.
For all of 2015, Boeing confirmed its forecast of revenue of $94.5-96.5 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $8.20-8.40. The average analyst estimate is $94.8 billion in revenue and $8.49 earnings per share.
Boeing expects to deliver 750-755 commercial aircraft this year, with that division producing revenue of $64.5-65.5 billion.
Before the stock markets opened, shares in Dow member Boeing fell 1.1 percent to $151.61. Boeing has been the second-best performer on the blue-chip index in the year to date, scoring a 17.96 percent gain.