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Boeing earnings climb
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October 22, 1998: 9:52 a.m. ET
Aircraft manufacturer easily clears estimates with $347 million profit
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Boeing Co. easily topped earnings predictions when it posted third-quarter profit results Thursday.
Boeing, a Dow component, chalked up net earnings of $347 million, or 36 cents per share, for the third quarter, topping by 9 cents the First Call analysts' estimate of 27 cents per share.
In the year-ago period, Boeing posted a net loss of $696 million, or a 72 cents per share, although last year's weaker figures were the result of an extremely difficult period when production problems delayed delivery of some airliners.
Boeing said $57 million, or 6 cents per share, of its profit can be attributed to tax benefits resulting from settling research and development defense partnership issues.
However, Boeing also was helped during the third quarter by climbing sales, which reached $12.7 billion. During the same period a year ago, Boeing (BA) logged sales of $11.4 billion.
Boeing's sales also have been up for the first nine month. So far in 1998, Boeing's sales total $39 billion compared with $34.1 billion in 1997.
This has helped it score net earnings of $655 million, or 67 cents per share, thus far in 1998, compared with $320 million, or 33 cents per share, for the first nine months of 1997.
Seattle, Wash.-based Boeing attributed the higher sales principally to the increased level of commercial aircraft deliveries. Boeing delivered a total of 370 jet aircraft during the first nine months.
However, Boeing faces a profit squeeze, it said, because of continued pricing pressures that have kept profits in check.
Additionally, Boeing has been rolling out new models that typically have lower profit margins because of increased production costs during the early years of a program. For example, the company's next-generation 737 program has yet to make a profit.
And, as with many companies, Asia's economic problems continue to exert a drag on Boeing. It said its 747 production rate will be reduced during the second quarter of next year due the region's woes, although it predicted a return to normal production rates in 2000. 
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Boeing
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