Al Root

Boeing stock rose early Monday after catching an upgrade to Buy. President Donald Trump's trade policy played a role.

BofA Securities analyst Ronald Epstein upgraded Boeing stock on Monday to Buy from Hold. He also raised his target price to $260 -- the highest on Wall Street, according to FactSet, and up about 25% from recent levels -- from $185.

Shares were up 1.6% in premarket trading at $210.56, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

Recent orders coming from airlines in the U.K. and Middle East, as well as easing trade tensions with China, set a precedent for President Trump's trade negotiations, wrote Epstein. Boeing's planes, a key American export, have become a tool in negotiations.

New orders and adding to Boeing's backlog are important, but Boeing already has more than 6,000 unfilled orders for jets. Its biggest job is building planes.

Recently, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors that his company was close to making 38 737 MAX jets a month. Production has been below that level for months following a January 2024 emergency-door-plug blowout from a 737 MAX while it was in flight. Increasing production rates are a sign Boeing's production control and quality are improving.

Stabilizing production was another factor in the upgrade, wrote Epstein.

With the new rating, 69% of analysts covering Boeing stock have Buy ratings, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for shares is about $215.

Coming into Monday trading, Boeing stock was up about 17% year to date. It's been a strong start to 2025. Still, Boeing stock was north of $260 before the door plug blew out, and shares were trading for more than $440 shortly before a second deadly 737 MAX crash grounded MAX jets worldwide from March 2019 to November 2020.

Boeing's turnaround has been a long time in the making.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 02, 2025 07:28 ET (11:28 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.