Boeing Co., the defense contractor that won lucrative new contracts for a Navy drone and an Air Force training jet in 2018, garnered higher sales for the year than ever before.
Revenue grew 8 percent to $101.1 billion, the Chicago-based company said Wednesday, driven by a lucrative fourth quarter that included higher fighter-jet sales in its military unit and increasing deliveries of commercial planes such as the composite-plastic 787 Dreamliner. Earnings of $16.01 a share topped the $15.11 average estimate from analysts surveyed by FactSet.
“Our financial performance provided a firm platform to further invest in new growth businesses, innovation and future franchise programs, as well as in our people and enabling technologies,” CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement. “In the last five years, we have invested nearly $35 billion in key strategic areas of our business.”
During the previous quarter, the Chicago-based plane-maker had written down profits in its defense unit by $691 million to cover costs on initial work for the MQ-25, an unmanned refueling tanker that can take off and land on an aircraft carrier, and the T-X trainer for Air Force fighter pilots, a fraction of their ultimate value.
Muilenburg has said the two programs offer a potential $60 billion long-term revenue stream. Landing contracts for military aircraft likely to be in use for much of the century revitalize a Boeing business that had relied heavily on production of older models after losing the lucrative F-35 fighter to Lockheed Martin and the B-21 long-range bomber to Northrop Grumman.
The multimillion-dollar charges aren’t cash payouts, but an assessment of the likely costs and revenue over the first contracts for the two programs, Boeing said at the time. The Navy’s MQ-25 order covers just four aircraft, expected to be delivered in 2024, while the T-X deal includes 351 planes that represent less than 20 percent of the total production run.
Sales in the defense unit, the company’s second largest business, climbed 16 percent to $6.1 billion in the three months through December, Boeing said Wednesday, driven in part by growing purchases of the F/A-18 fighter jet.
Revenue in the commercial planes division, Boeing’s largest, climbed 12 percent to $17.3 billion, and deliveries — when the plane-maker books a large portion of its revenue — rose 14 percent. The company turned over its 787th Dreamliner, and buyers picked up 111 737 MAX single-aisle aircraft.
