Boeing is the world’s biggest maker of commercial and military aircraft. In the past decade, it went from posting its largest annual profit in its more than 100-year history to posting its biggest annual loss just two years later
Here’s what happened to Boeing’s history of dividend payments and stock splits.
Boeing’s revenues and earnings
Before delving into Boeing’s history of dividend payments, analyzing its annual reports in recent years is key. Boeing lost more money — to the tune of tens of billions of dollars — than it earned in the decade from 2015 to 2025 due to rising production costs, order cancellations, and charges related to the temporary grounding and the suspended production and deliveries of its problematic 737 MAX line of commercial aircraft.
Revenue peaked in 2018, at $101 billion, but dropped precipitously to $76.5 billion in 2019 mainly because of the grounding and lower deliveries of 737 MAX aircraft following accidents of 737 MAX aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The company posted a record annual profit of $10.46 billion in 2018, but just two years later, in 2020, COVID-19 disrupted production, and it posted a record $11.9 billion loss.
Boeing revenue, earnings & losses 2015–2025
In millions of U.S. dollars
Year
Revenue
Earnings/(Loss)
2025
89,463
2,238
2024
66,517
(11,829)
2023
77,794
(2,242)
2022
66,608
(5,053)
2021
62,286
(4,290)
2020
58,158
(11,941)
2019
76,559
(636)
2018
101,127
10,460
2017
94,005
8,458
2016
93,496
5,034
2015
96,114
5,176
Source: Boeing
Related: Boeing stock ownership: Institutional and executive shareholders
Why did Boeing stop paying dividends?
In March 2020, just as COVID-19 began to upend global economic activity, Boeing suspended dividend payments due to financial constraints. Uncertainties over the impact of COVID-19 (and its commercial aircraft business — mainly the 737 MAX) were significant contributors to its cash preservation initiative.
Through the calendar year ending in December 2020,…
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