Boeing Co.’s profit fell short of analysts’ estimates for the first time in five years as a charge for cost overruns on refueling tankers overshadowed improvements in cash flow and the company’s 787 Dreamliner production. The accounting loss—the third for the tanker—reduced first-quarter profit to $1.74 a share, Boeing said in a statement Wednesday. That missed analysts’ estimates by 10 cents a share. Excluding the one-time loss and some pension expenses, earnings were $1.98 a share. Boeing’s struggle to develop the first new U.S. tanker since the 1980s has added to skittishness among investors. They’ve also been concerned about a glut of planes in the global market and a federal probe of company accounting, which was reported by Bloomberg News. However, the manufacturer exceeded forecasts in another key measure: Its free cash flow of $483 million was better than the $357.6 million outflow anticipated by analysts. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving as Boeing absorbed another charge on tanker, but the cash flow story is intact,” Jason Gursky, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., said in a report to investors Wednesday. Shares were little changed at $133.34 at 11:12 a.m. in New York. The planemaker’s stock slipped 7.8 percent this year through Tuesday, the third-worst result among the 30 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 787 Costs Investors have been waiting for Chicago-based Boeing to generate a gush of cash from the 787 Dreamliner as costs stabilize. Output will rise to 12 aircraft a month this year and a monthly rate of 14 later this decade, both records for long-range aircraft. Deferred production costs for the 787 rose $141 million to $28.7 billion from the end of 2015, a smaller increase than the previous quarter. Boeing has said the figure, which measures funds already poured into inventory and labor against increases in production efficiency, will plateau this year as it speeds output. Higher deliveries of military aircraft and Boeing’s lower 787 production costs helped boost operating cash flow to $1.23 billion from $88 million a year earlier. “The first quarter is typically one of the weakest for cash,” Ken Herbert, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, said by phone. Free cash flow in the reporting period represented a “$900 million swing from a year ago.” Per-share profit results were for a measure that the planemaker dubs core earnings, which it says gives a better picture of its results by adjusting for market fluctuations in pension cost. Net income slid 9 percent to $1.21 billion, or $1.83 a share, from a year earlier. Total sales advanced to $22.6 billion, exceeding the $21.5 billion projected by analysts. Commercial Airplanes Profit at Boeing’s commercial airplanes division tumbled 36 percent to $1.03 billion from a year earlier as the company delivered fewer jetliners and absorbed costs for the tanker development and slowing 747 jumbo jet output. Defense division profit grew 11 percent to $822 million, reflecting strong performance on military aircraft such as the F-15 fighter program. The company spent $3.5 billion to buy back 28.6 million shares during the quarter, about three times the volume some analysts anticipated. Cash and marketable securities declined to $8.4 billion from $12.1 billion at the start of the reporting period. The repurchase activity along with the research and development costs from new aircraft programs, ranging from the tanker to 777X jetliner, add to the pressure on Boeing to lower manufacturing costs, said George Ferguson, senior air transport analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Clearly the biggest challenge in the middle of it is 787,” Ferguson said by telephone. “They’ve got to find a way to make it a more profitable program.” Tanker Charges The tanker-related charge is the third reported by Boeing, which had already absorbed $1.26 billion in pretax accounting losses converting its commercial 767 jetliners into aerial gas stations for the Pentagon. Wiring issues and damage to a test aircraft’s fueling system erased any profit for the first of potentially $80 billion in planes. The latest charge, for $156 million on an after-tax basis, reflects added costs to meet tanker schedule commitments, Boeing said Wednesday. The Defense Contract Management Agency predicted last month that developing and building the first four KC-46 tankers will cost at least $6.32 billion, forcing the company to swallow $1.5 billion in costs over the contract’s $4.82 billion cap. The agency, which oversees contracts, also projected that Boeing would miss the August 2017 delivery target for the first 18 tankers by about seven months.