Boeing Co. said Wednesday it swung to a fourth-quarter loss, hurt by a labor strike that disrupted deliveries from the world’s second-largest airplane maker. It also forecast 2009 earnings that missed Wall Street expectations.
The Chicago-based company reported a loss of $56 million, or 8 cents per share, for the last three months of 2008, compared with profit of $1.03 billion, or $1.36 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Results were dragged down by handful of charges stemming from a two-month strike by machinists, a legal reserve and other items.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected earnings of 78 cents in the fourth quarter. Those estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Looking ahead, Boeing expected per-share earnings of $5.05 to $5.35 for 2009, short of the $5.68 expected by the same group of analysts. Boeing’s revenue outlook of $68 billion to $69 billion for this year was in line with expectations.
Shares of Boeing fell 2 cents to $43.20 in pre-market trading.
Fourth-quarter revenue fell 27 percent to $12.68 billion as passenger and cargo jet deliveries fell by more than half as the strike paralyzed the company’s Seattle-based commercial aircraft operations for 58 days through early November. Analysts had expected revenue of $13.40 billion.