Forecast Boeing 2016 earnings shares drop.

Boeing Co (BA.N) forecast 2016 core earnings below estimates on Wednesday, and said it expected to deliver fewer commercial planes this year, sending its shares down 6.5 percent.

Boeing also reported weaker fourth-quarter profit.

The world's largest jetliner maker expects to deliver 740 to 745 planes in 2016, its centenary year, down from 762 in 2015.

The company attributed the decline to a slowdown in the 737 line as Boeing shifts production to a new version of the plane, the 737 MAX, and to a slight reduction in output of 747-8s as it slows production of the jumbo jet late next year in response to weak demand.

Boeing forecast 2016 core earnings, excluding some pension and other costs, to be between $8.15 and $8.35 per share, less than the average analyst estimate of $9.43, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income fell to $1.03 billion, or $1.51 per share, in the fourth quarter, from $1.47 billion, or $2.02 per share, a year earlier.

Core earnings declined to $1.60 per share from $2.31, reflecting a charge for slowing production of the 747-8 jumbo jet. Wall Street looked for core earnings of $1.26 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Boeing said last week it would cut 747-8 output to six planes a year from 12, starting in September 2016, and take a charge of $569 million, or 84 cents a share, in the fourth quarter.

Fourth-quarter revenue fell about 4 percent to $23.57 billion. Analysts expected $23.53 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.