Boeing profit rises on commercial airplane sales

Boeing Company on Wednesday reported higher fourth-quarter net profit as it delivered more commercial airplanes and said it expected such deliveries to surge in 2014.The U.S. aerospace and defense giant said profit rose 26 percent to $1.23 billion in the October-December quarter from $978 million in the same period a year earlier. Profits increased in both its commercial airplane and defense businesses.Revenue rose 7 percent to $23.8 billion from $22.3 billion a year ago. Both profit and revenue figures beat Wall Street estimates. For all of 2013, revenue was $86.6 billion.Core profit, which excludes some pension expenses, rose 29 percent to $1.84 billion. Boeing said it expects core profit to rise about 2 percent in 2014, which is lower than analyst estimates.