In late January, Boeing said the quarter was good and was looking for its busiest year ever for plane deliveries. According to Alwyn Scott of Reuters, Boeing is the world’s biggest planes maker and after cutting 20% of its workforce over the past couple of years believes most of its remaining workforce will be stable for 2018.

The competition for Boeing is Airbus who sold more planes last year, Boeing is aiming to sell more than 800 planes for 2018 up from the record setting 763 in 2017. The good news for both companies is there is still a large back order of planes as airlines are dealing with an increase demand for air travel.

Boeing is forecasting its core profit would rise to about $14 a share. The commercial aircraft division is leading the group, while defense is expected to grow at 5% and the servicing of the aircraft area grew at 7% to $4 billion. The company is expecting to generate at least $12.8 billion in free cash flow. The analyst believe the number is conservative and will likely be higher.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Boeing has a full order book, a back log of planes, has reduced its workforce to increase efficiencies and is expected to generate profits. That is a good news story and expectations are the stock will continue to increase over the next year, on top of the doubling it did last year. Those are things worth smiling about.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time — to raising questions.