Boeing's fourth-quarter profit rose 26 per cent as it delivered more commercial airplanes, a speedup that it says will continue this year.
However, Boeing shares dropped in premarket trading today after it said 2014 revenue and profit would be lower than analysts have been expecting.
Boeing finished 2013 with a fourth-quarter profit of USD 1.23 billion, or USD 1.61 per share, well ahead of the expectation of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Profits grew in both its commercial airplane and defence businesses.
Revenue rose 7 per cent to USD 23.79 billion.
Orders from airlines around the world have pushed both Boeing and competitor Airbus to build more planes than ever before. Boeing says it will deliver 715 to 725 planes this year, an increase of at least 10 per cent from last year.
Boeing has sped production of both its workhorse 737, as well as its new 787. It expects to deliver 110 787s this year, up from 65 last year. Earlier this month Boeing said it began building 787s at a rate of about 10 per month.
Boeing's profits are benefiting from the surge in deliveries, but not as much as analysts had hoped. Today, it said so-called "core" earnings, which exclude certain items, would be USD 7 to USD 7.20 per share, with revenue of USD 87.5 billion to USD 90.5 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting a profit of USD 7.52 per share on revenue of USD 92.72 billion.
For all of 2013, Boeing earned USD 5.96 per share on revenue of USD 86.62 billion.
In premarket trading, Boeing shares fell USD 3.36, or 2.5 per cent, to USD 133.73.
