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By Kyle Peterson
January 25, 2012 4:49 PM EST
Boeing Co
The world's largest aerospace and defense company said the expense would amount to 83 cents per share, and it forecast earnings, including the expense, of $4.05 to $4.25 per share on revenue of $78 billion to $80 billion.
Analysts, on average, had expected 2012 earnings of $4.96 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Boeing gave the outlook as part of its fourth-quarter earnings report, which showed higher-than-expected profit on the strength of its commercial airplane deliveries.
"People had been expecting the pension expense was going to go up, but the amount of the increase was more than I was looking for," said Kenneth Herbert, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. "I was looking for something in the range of 50 cents."
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Shares of Boeing, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, were up 0.47 percent at $75.72, after an earlier decline that took its shares to $72.85.
"It's too early for me to say if it's another incremental expense in 2013," Herbert said.
Boeing said the pension expense was partly due to lower interest rates on its pension fund investments over the last two years.
"SOLID OPERATING QUARTER"
Boeing reported fourth-quarter net profit of $1.4 billion, or $1.84 per share, compared with $1.2 billion, or $1.56 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding a favorable tax settlement of 52 cents per share, the company earned $1.31 per share, beating an average Wall Street forecast of $1.01, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company, which competes with Airbus
RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Stallard said in a research note that Boeing had a "solid operating quarter" driven by good margins on its commercial and defense sides.
Revenue for its commercial planes division increased by 31 percent to $10.7 billion. Boeing delivered 477 planes last year, up from 462 in 2010. The company gets paid for airplanes at delivery.
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