The ’company said Wednesday that it made $586 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with $519 million, or 70 cents a share, in the period a year ago when the company took a 20 cents-per-share charge related to health care legislation.

Analysts on average expected Boeing to report a first-quarter profit of 70 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue, however, slipped 2 percent to $14.9 billion.

Boeing, which competes with EADS unit Airbus, splits its business almost evenly between commercial airplanes and defense products.

The commercial airplane unit’s first-quarter revenue decreased by 5 percent to $7.1 billion on fewer 777 deliveries.

Boeing repeated that first delivery for the long-delayed 787 Dreamliner was on track for the third quarter.

First-quarter revenue for the military subdivision was $7.6 billion, in line with the year-ago quarter.

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