But Remains Bullish About Earlier Projections

Boeing struck the middle ground between some analysts' dire predictions, and its own optimistic projections, in reporting the aerospace giant's second quarter numbers Wednesday.

The company reported a net income of $852 million, or $1.16 cents per share. That compares to $1.05 billion in net income for the same period last year.

As a whole, Boeing posted a 14 percent decline in Q2 2008 earnings, reports the Wall Street Journal. Much of that loss comes from Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems side, which told investors earlier this year to expect a hit due to losses related to its Airborne Early Warning & Control program. As ANN reported, Boeing isn't expected to deliver its first converted 737-700s to a paying customer until next year, much later than originally predicted way back in 2002.

Boeing took a pretax charge of $250 million on delays to the program, known in Turkey as Peace Eagle and Australia as the Wedgetail. That works out to 22 cents per share.

Things were somewhat better on the commercial side -- Boeing's largest revenue generator -- though performance there slipped, as well. Boeing Commercial Airplanes business fell 1.6 percent, with a 19 percent drop in earnings. In more positive news, Boeing increased its overall backlog by 8 percent, fueled by 187 new gross orders for the quarter.

Boeing told investors it still expects to meet its goals for 2008 and 2009 earnings.

FMI: Read The Full Report From Boeing (.pdf)