Earnings for the fourth quarter totaled $1.84 a share. Wall Street had predicted a $1 per share profit. Other fourth-quarter numbers were up significantly. Revenues at $19.55 billion rose 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. Earnings from operations, $1.597 billion, increased by 45 percent from the prior year. And net income bumped up 20 percent to $1.393 billion from the same quarter in 2010. Boeing’s Puget Sound-based Commercial Airplanes Group saw significantly better results both in the fourth quarter and for the full year.
Airliner deliveries increased from 116 in 2010 to 128 last year in the fourth quarter. Revenues for the division in the fourth quarter, driven by the long-awaited start of deliveries for the delayed 787 and 747-8 aircraft, rose by 31 percent. Earnings from operations in the fourth quarter were positive by 56 percent. For the full year, deliveries were up by 15 aircraft to 477 and earnings from operations were higher by 16 percent at $3.495 billion.
The company’s other major division, Defense, Space and Security, outperformed analyst estimates with a 4 percent increase in revenue and a 6 percent increase in earnings from operations to $865 million in the fourth quarter.
A stronger order book, increased deliveries for Boeing’s newest planes and new contracts for Air Force tankers and Saudi fighter aircraft are giving the company “renewed momentum” for 2012, said Boeing chairman James McNerney.
