Wall Street Lowers Earnings Expectations for The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA)

Wall Street analysts are now predicting The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA)'s September 2014, third quarter earnings per share will be lower than previously estimated with a range between $1.77 and $2.15 per share and a consensus of $1.97 per share. The consensus recommendation of First Call analysts is a Buy for the stock. During each of the last four quarters, The Boeing Company (BA) has exceeded the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.This recommendation is based on reports from twenty seven research firms, of which nine have a Strong Buy stance on The Boeing Company (BA), nine see it as a Buy, eight a Hold and one has a Sell rating. In the past week two of the estimates were updated by analysts, one with an upward revision and one downward. Over the past month, five estimates have been revised in the upward direction and five downward as well.The current consensus EPS moved slightly lower over the past four weeks as earnings approaches. The high estimate moved from its high of $2.18 to the current $2.15. The low estimate has remained unchanged over the past four weeks at $1.77.The current quarter consensus estimate of $1.97 per share implies an increase of 9.50% from the same quarter last year when the company earned $1.80 per share. Boeing's peer group earnings are forecasted to rise above the the same quarter last year but have been revised downward over the last four weeks as well.The most recent analyst action consisted of Sterne Agee reiterating their Buy rating on October 1st, but dropping their price target from $167 to $127 for the stock. Barclays also weighed in on the stock in September, reiterating their overweight rating and bumping up their price target on the stock from $147 to $155.

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) manufactures commercial airplanes, provides defense equipment, and maintains a small captive finance division. With headquarters in Chicago, the firm actively competes with Airbus in commercial aviation and Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics in defense operations. Sales are split about 60/40 between the airplane and defense segments. The firm generated nearly $87 billion in sales and employed 168,400 people in 2013.