Boeing stock gains even after wider-than-expected loss, big revenue miss

Shares of Boeing Co. gained 0.7% in premarket trading, even as the aerospace and defense company reported a big loss and revenue misses, amid weakness in the commercial airplanes and defense, space and security businesses, while free cash flow was a lot less negative than projected. The net loss narrowed to $132 million, or 19 cents a share, from $466 million, or 79 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, the per-share loss of 60 cents was triple the FactSet loss consensus of 20 cents. Revenue rose 8.1% to $15.28 billion, well below the FactSet consensus of $16.37 billion. Among the business segments, commercial airplanes revenue rose 24% to $4.46 billion but missed the FactSet consensus of $5.76 billion and defense, space and security revenue fell 3% to $6.62 billion to miss expectations of $6.80 billion, while global services revenue rose 14% to $4.22 billion to beat expectations of $3.92 billion. Free cash flow improved to negative $507 million from $5.08 billion a year ago, and beat expectations of negative $1.13 billion. "We are driving stability across our operations, investing in our future and positioning our teams to deliver for our customers as the market recovers," said Chief Executive David Calhoun. "Commercial market demand continues to gain traction with broad-based vaccine distribution and border protocols beginning to open." The stock has shed 5.6% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 2.0%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.