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Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) gets a mixed report card this morning. Its earnings were up 38% in the first quarter but it lost a $3.74 billion deal to Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC). The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reports that Boeing earned $1.62 in the first quarter, beating analysts' estimates by 27 cents a share. But Bloomberg News reports that Boeing lost another contest with Northrop -- this time for a spy plane, specifically a drone.

First, the good news for Boeing. The Journal reports that its net income of $1.21 billion, or $1.62 a share, increased 43% from $877 million, or $1.13 a share, a year earlier, while its revenue climbed 4.1% to $15.99 billion. Also important, Boeing reiterated its boosted guidance for earnings of $5.70 to $5.85 a share on $67 billion to $68 billion in revenue. Analysts' latest mean estimates were $5.93 and $68.95 billion, respectively. Even better, it raised its earnings projections for 2009 to between $6.80 and $7 a share on strong production-program performance and declining research-and-development and pension expenses. Analysts were expecting $6.87.

Now, the bad news. Northrop's Global Hawk drone beat Boeing's aircraft for the 68 plane order, after in February, Boeing already lost an Air Force competition for refueling tankers. Northrop, which had never built a refueling aircraft, faced a Boeing team that supplied the Air Force for more than half a century. Northrop won that $35 billion program by offering a larger jet with more fuel capacity than Boeing. Is Boeing's lack of competitive vigor on the defense side a sign of deeper management problems?

Investors don't seem concerned. Boeing stock is up over 2% in early trading.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He is writing a book about Boeing and has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.