Boeing (NYSE: BA) comfortably beat estimates on earnings per share when it reported first-quarter results before market open Wednesday.
The aerospace giant raised its full-year earnings forecast by 50 cents, to a range of $16.40 per share to $16.60 per share, while maintaining its revenue at a range of $96 billion to $98 billion.
Boeing's performance drove "revenue and earnings growth at all three business units," CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement.
Earnings per Share registered at $3.64 per share vs. $2.58 per share forecast by Thomson Reuters. Revenue was $23.38 billion vs. $22.26 billion forecast.
Boeing is pumping out airplanes at a record pace and aims to keep climbing. CEO Dennis Muilenburg told the media in February that the company expects to be "building more than 900 airplanes a year" by 2020 — a rate of about one aircraft every 10 hours.
But the largest aerospace company in the world is under pressure in the U.S. due to trade policy uncertainties. A trade war between the U.S. and China could penalize Boeing's business overseas. Boeing has estimated China will buy as much as $1 trillion worth of aircraft over the next two decades and
says a quarter of its jetliners are being bought by Chinese customers.
Boeing's stock stumbled through the first quarter of 2018, falling about 3% after a stellar run through 2017, when shares gained about 108%.
Shares in the aircraft maker flew $4.49, or 1.4%, to $333.55
