MW Boeing beats revenue expectations by a wide margin, as airplane deliveries nearly triple

By Claudia Assis and Tomi Kilgore

A $9.6 billion gain from asset sales helped Boeing swing to a large profit

A Boeing 777 jet in Dubai during the city's airshow in November. The aerospace and defense giant reported quarterly results on Tuesday.

Aerospace and defense giant Boeing reported a surprise fourth-quarter profit and a big revenue beat Tuesday, boosted by the sale of assets and higher volume in commercial deliveries.

The earnings beat was helped by the $9.6 billion gain on the sale of portions of the Digital Aviation Solutions business during the quarter, and by the approval by the Federal Aviation Administration to increase the production rate for the 737 aircraft.

Boeing $(BA)$ said it swung to fourth-quarter net income of $8.13 billion from a loss of $3.92 billion in the same period a year ago. Core earnings per share came in at $9.92, while analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a per-share loss of 44 cents.

Revenue jumped 57.1% to $23.95 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $22.6 billion. The margin of that top-line beat was the widest in at least five years, based on available FactSet data back to October 2020.

Commercial revenue jumped 139% to $11.38 billion, beating expectations of $10.61 billion. Deliveries increased 181% to 160 aircraft. Revenue from defense, space and security grew 37.1% to $7.42 billion, beating expectations of $6.31 billion.

The stock slipped 1.6% in premarket trading. It had touched a two-year high earlier this month as the company announced a raft of new orders, but it's still a far cry from a March 1, 2019, record close of $400.62.

Watch the $260 level, where the stock has encountered resistance, said Jay Woods, a strategist with Freedom Capital. If it can break through that level, "this turnaround stock can soar," Woods said in emailed comments ahead of the report.

Earlier this month, Boeing said it had delivered 600 commercial aircraft in 2025, compared with 348 planes in 2024. Analysts at RBC Capital called it a "strong rebound" for deliveries and "encouraging" for this year.

The stock has run up 41.8% over the past 12 months through Monday, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 15.6%.

-Claudia Assis -Tomi Kilgore

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January 27, 2026 08:19 ET (13:19 GMT)

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