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Technology Stocks : Boeing keeps setting new highs! When will it split? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wally Mastroly who wrote (2231)	4/27/1999 9:13:00 AM
From: Chip Roos	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3764

Boeing holds upbeat meeting By Kyung M. Song Of the Post-Dispatch LOS ANGELES -- Under sunny California skies, Boeing Co. held an upbeat annual meeting Monday that contrasted sharply with last year's gloomy shareholders' gathering in St. Louis. The Seattle-based aerospace company surpassed expectations last week by reporting first-quarter earnings that were more than nine times the dismal 1998 level. Boeing officials clearly believe that they have conquered the worst of the production problems that have bedeviled its commercial airplane business for two years. When Boeing brought its annual meeting to St. Louis -- its first outside the Puget Sound area -- the company was coming off its first annual loss in 50 years. Boeing decided to move the shareholder meetings around after it merged with St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1997. St. Louis is the headquarters for Boeing's Military Aircraft and Missile Systems unit. Debby Hopkins, Boeing's new chief financial officer, made her debut before shareholders with a speech that detailed the recent financial improvements and strategies for holding each of Boeing's 40 businesses accountable for profitability. Wearing a lilac suit and sequined blouse, Hopkins brought a dose of color to the dais she shared with three dark-suited, bespectacled Boeing executives, including Chairman and Chief Executive Phil Condit. Hopkins told shareholders that Boeing now knows which of its products and programs are profitable, which are not and which are of only marginal value. Any product or program that can't be made profitable will be eliminated. Boeing earned $1.1 billion in 1998 after losing $178 million the year before. Boeing's commercial airplane group couldn't keep up with record orders and struggled with quality problems, parts shortages and late deliveries. Boeing has since decided to stop chasing market share in a race with Europe's Airbus Industrie and focus instead on profit margins. Investors pummeled Boeing's stock to as low as $29.50 last October from $60 a share in July 1997. The stock closed Monday at $39.56, down 94 cents. "The [first-quarter] results show that Boeing is emerging from the turbulence," Hopkins said. "We have both hands firmly on the controls. We know where we want to go." The defense unit has been a stellar performer since Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas. Condit said the challenge for the military division is finding ways to get the highest returns from existing plants and facilities. Boeing employs about 20,000 people in the St. Louis area. It builds F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet fighter jets near Lambert Field, and missiles at its weapons plant in St. Charles. Hopkins said reducing overhead, streamlining manufacturing and justifying the base of suppliers are some of the concrete measures Boeing intends to apply to all of its businesses. Boeing has been steadily paring its employment around the country. While the bulk of the cuts occurred in the Puget Sound area, St. Louis has lost nearly 3,000 Boeing jobs since last year. At the end of 1998, Boeing had 231,000 workers in 27 states. It has cut more than 12,000 jobs since then and expects to trim between 24,000 and 34,000 more by the end of next year. That means that in two years as many as one out of five Boeing workers would have been let go. Boeing's employment picture in St. Louis is much the same. The company had 22,800 workers here in March 1998. It has about 20,000 workers now and may cut 620 more jobs by summer. Some of the job cuts in St. Louis stemmed from dwindling deliveries for the F-15 Eagle and the F/A-18 Hornet, neither of which has any orders beyond next year. Boeing is awaiting Greece's decision on whether to buy the Eagle, Lockheed Martin's F-16 Falcon or France's Mirage fighter jet. Reports from Athens say the government may make its decision Friday. Condit has said Boeing needs to secure more orders for the Eagle before the end of June to prevent further slowdowns in production.