Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

Boeing Is the Big Exception to Earnings Gloom

The planemaker’s expectations for an ongoing boom in free cash flow and profit show why aerospace may be the exception to fears of a peak.

October 24, 2018 at 2:18 PM UTC

By Brooke Sutherland

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

Flying high.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

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Boeing Co. is a bright spot in a rough week for industrial earnings.

The planemaker reported better-than-expected third-quarter results on Wednesday morning, and raised its guidance for 2018 adjusted profit. Boeing also maintained its goal of delivering 810 to 815 commercial airplanes this year, easing pre-earnings jitters over a relatively weak shipping rate in the third quarter. That should provide confidence that bottlenecks in its supply chain won’t do too much damage to the production boom that’s key to Boeing’s cash-flow aspirations. The company reported $4.1 billion in third-quarter free cash flow, handily surpassing analysts’ estimates.