Boeing (BA) will report second quarter earnings on Tuesday as investors look to CEO Kelly Ortberg to continue his turnaround of the beleaguered jet maker. In step with Orberg’s moves and recent positive trade developments, Boeing stock is up over 30% year to date.
Boeing is expected to report revenue of $21.68 billion, per Bloomberg consensus. This is a big jump compared to the $16.9 billion posted a year ago, when the company was mired in a production slowdown stemming from the door plug blowout of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max jet.
Boeing’s profit woes are ongoing, however, as the company is expected to report an adjusted EPS, or core loss per share, of $1.40, with an operating loss of $161.1 million. Of note will be free cash flow, or cash burn rate in Boeing’s case, which hit $2.3 billion last quarter; the expectation is for this figure to fall to $1.8 billion in Q2.
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Boeing, once the world’s largest plane maker, is in the process of turning its business around following a disastrous 2024, which began with the aforementioned door plug blowout in January. Issues with its supplier Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) and various whistleblower complaints stemming from both production of the 737 Max jet and widebody 787 Dreamliner eventually cost then-CEO Dave Calhoun his job, with Kelly Ortberg named the new CEO in late July and starting on Aug. 8.
Ortberg began his turnaround plan deliberately, slowing production of Boeing’s jets to hammer out production issues and slowly boosting production in close conjunction with FAA regulators.
Earlier this month, Boeing announced that commercial deliveries hit 150 jets vs. 130 delivered in the first quarter and 92 delivered in the year-ago quarter. Of Q2 deliveries, 102 were 737 Max jets (compared to 69 delivered a year ago), 24 787s (nine last year), 13 777s (seven last year), and nine 767s (six last year).
As for cranking up its 737 Max production, Ortberg said in late May that Boeing’s goal was to reach a rate of 42 a month by midyear and be in a position at the end of the year to review readiness for a rate of 47 a month.
“Boeing continues to show great progress, but the ramp-up may be more gradual than our prior view,” William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote shortly after Ortberg’s comments. “Our earlier note indicated that a 47 monthly production rate was possible by the end of 2025. Our new view is that the 47 aircraft per month target is more likely in mid-2026.”
Boeing faced another crisis in June when an Air India 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport. Initial reports, however, suggest pilot error may have caused the crash, with the engine fuel control switches moved to the “cut-off” position. Investigators are still trying to determine why that was the case.
