NEW YORK —Boeing Co. () on Wednesday reported a higher-than-expected second-quarter profit compared with a year-ago loss, and raised its full-year forecast as it ramped up delivery of its hot-selling commercial planes and defense sales remained strong.

Its shares jumped 6 percent to an all-time high of $110 in electronic trading before the bell.

Boeing, which vies with for the title of world’s biggest plane maker and is the Pentagon’s No. 2 supplier, reported quarterly profit of $1.1 billion, or $1.35 per share, compared with a loss of $160 million, or 21 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 14 percent to $17 billion.

That easily beat Wall Street’s earnings forecast of $1.16 per share, on average, on revenue of $16.01 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Boeing’s sales of commercial jets rose sharply as it delivered 114 planes in the quarter, up 18 percent from the year before.

The Chicago-based plane maker is ramping up deliveries of planes, reflecting a three-year surge in orders that allowed it to reclaim the title of biggest-selling plane maker from its European rival last year.

For the full-year, Boeing raised its earnings forecast to $4.80 to $4.95 per share, up from its previous range of $4.55 to $4.75 per share. Analysts are expecting $4.91 per share, on average.

For 2008, it kept its earnings forecast of $5.55 to $5.75 per share. Analysts are expecting $6.12 per share, on average.

CHICAGO—Colgate-Palmolive Co. () posted a better-than-expected 47 percent rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, driven by improvements from its ongoing restructuring and strong global sales growth.

The company, whose Colgate toothpaste is the top seller worldwide, also said it still expected double-digit percentage growth in earnings per share this year.

Second-quarter profit rose to $415.8 million, or 76 cents per share, from $283.6 million, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, earnings were 84 cents per share. On that basis, analysts on average expected 83 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Colgate is in the midst of a four-year restructuring announced in late 2004 that has made it more focused on oral care, personal care and pet food. It has also beefed up its marketing, with advertising spending up 22 percent during the second quarter.

Products from Colgate have come under scrutiny this year. In March, it had to recall some Hill’s cat food manufactured by an outside company, and in June, counterfeit “Colgate” toothpaste was found in certain stores.

The New York-based company is now led by Chief Executive Ian Cook, who took over from Reuben Mark on July 1, just after the second quarter ended. Mark remains chairman.

Second-quarter sales rose 13 percent to $3.41 billion, topping the analysts’ average forecast of $3.31 billion.

Cook said Colgate expected the strong sales growth to continue for the rest of the year, driven by new products.

The company also expects gross profit margin improvement, excluding restructuring charges, to be within its targeted range of 0.75 to 1.25 percentage points this year and next year. In the second quarter, gross profit margin excluding restructuring charges increased 1 percentage point to 57.1 percent.

GROWTH EVERYWHERE

Colgate said its toothpaste market share grew in countries such as Brazil, China, France, India, Mexico and Russia.

Unit volume, which factors out the impact of foreign currency fluctuations and price increases, rose 8 percent, or 8.5 percent excluding divestitures. Sales and volume rose in every division.

CIBC analyst Joseph Altobello said the “standout” was Latin America, where volume rose 12.5 percent excluding a divested bleach business. Colgate said it was the fourth straight quarter where volume grew by a double-digit percentage rate in Latin America, one of its largest markets.

Altobello, who has a “sector performer” rating on Colgate shares, said he still saw the company’s valuation as “modestly attractive” and that pressures in core categories “appear manageable for now.”

Colgate and larger rival Procter & Gamble Co. () have been going head-to-head marketing their high-end toothpastes, and Crest Pro-Health, respectively. P&G also now sells Oral-B toothbrushes, which compete with Colgate’s line.

Shares of Colgate, whose brands also include , Palmolive and Softsoap, trade at about 18.4 times expected 2008 earnings, in line with rivals including P&G.

To Eric Green, co-managing a $50 million hedge fund in San Francisco isn’t all that different from renovating a hospital in Estonia, which he did 10 years ago while in the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps.

The Detroit native, who served for seven years as a lieutenant in the Navy before going back to school for his MBA, says skills he developed in his first career have transferred well to his new one. Running a 50-Member Team

“An important component to the success of the mission is to communicate to the team how our work translates directly into a bigger, more-strategic vision of our senior military commanders,” says Green, comparing his leadership in Estonia and San Francisco. “I use these same skills now in translating our strategy into our investment process.”

Green says that overseeing a 50-member construction team, and working with the local community to build support for the Navy’s presence in the northern European nation, helped him understand the importance of attention to detail, and allowed him to develop the risk-management and people skills he needs in his current career.

Green, who has an undergraduate engineering degree from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia, now spends his days researching investment opportunities in micro-cap equities, communicating with investors, and developing risk-profile models as a managing partner at «investing.businessweek.com», which he joined in early 2005.

Although many of his skills carried over, Green says it has been difficult learning “how to filter the signal from the noise” when it comes to using market data to develop business strategies and pinpoint opportunities for growth. “I don’t know if I will ever overcome this problem,” says Green, who combats the obstacle by focusing on value-investing news rather than popular business information sources. “Most of my time is trying to hone the investment process, rather than worry about the hot headline.” Bored by Retirement

Karen Tuttle, who became a full-time pharmacy technician at CVS Pharmacy («www.businessweek.com») in Springfield, Ohio, three years ago, is also recycling the skills she developed in her first career. The former second-grade teacher, who propelled herself back into the workforce because she was bored by retirement, says her experience with parents prepared her to interact with customers. “I know how to deal with people who are not happy,” says Tuttle, 60, who taught for 30 years.

Tuttle spends her day filling prescriptions, checking in orders, serving customers at a drive-through window, and cleaning the pharmacy. Her only complaint is the time she spends standing.

“With teaching, the stress was trying to keep the children focused, and at the pharmacy the stress for me is trying to be on my feet all day,” says Tuttle. “At this stage of my life, if I really don’t like it, I’m not going to be doing it.”

Tuttle, like Green, is part of a movement of career changers taking advantage of an increasingly fluid job market to follow their passions and redirect their lives (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/23/07, “«www.businessweek.com».”) Talk to employers in their own language

Dr. Shel Leanne, president of Wilshel, an educational and career-consulting service, says career changers with backgrounds in public policy, engineering, medicine, and computer science can often make smooth transitions to the business world, if they communicate their qualifications to potential employers using business language.