Al Root

With the Air India 171 tragic crash preliminary report out, Boeing investors are focused again on the company's turnaround.

They are encouraged by what they see.

Shares of the commercial-jet maker were up 0.4% in early trading at $230.99, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

That would be a 52-week closing high, and within a couple of dollars of the 52-week intraday high of $233.61 reached on Tuesday.

It's been a rocky few weeks for the stock. Shares traded as low as $195.28 in the days after the June 12 Air India. The preliminary report showed that both switches controlling fuel to the two GE Aerospace GENx engines went to "CUTOFF" settings from "RUN" about one second apart. That effectively shut off both engines just after takeoff. After a conversation between the two pilots, both switches were turned back to "RUN" about 10 seconds later, but it was too late to regain thrust and avoid the crash.

The consensus opinion of Wall Street and aviation experts is that the switches were flipped manually, although exactly why, how, and by whom still isn't known with 100% certainty. The switch issue, however, doesn't appear indicate any design or manufacturing issues associated with 12-year-old Boeing 787 jet that crashed, and investigators didn't make any recommendations for operators of 787 jets or GENx engines.

With the preliminary report out, Wall Street price targets have started to rise. The average analyst price target for Boeing stock is about $240, according to FactSet, up some $30 from the end of May.

Wednesday, J.P. Morgan analyst Seth Seifman raised his price target to $23o from $200. "Boeing looks well-positioned for Q2 thanks to delivery strength, and we're reducing our cash burn estimate to about $1.5 billion," wrote the analyst. Boeing delivered 150 jets in the second quarter, up from 92 a year ago. The 150 pace annualizes to 600 jets, a big improvement from the 348 delivered in 2024. More jets means more cash flow, which has been a challenge for the company since the tragic 2018 and 2019 737 MAX crashes.

"The quarter saw production momentum on 737 and 787, with 737 MAX first flights only 19 behind the A320neo family, and we think FAA approval to boost 737 production beyond 38/mo is likely late this year," added Siefman. The FAA's blessing of production increases is an important sign that the agency has confidence in Boeing's manufacturing and quality improvements.

He rates Boeing stock at Buy. The target price is close to the stock price, but sometimes Wall Street targets can be interpreted as what to pay for a stock to earn an attractive return in the future.

Boeing reports second-quarter earnings on July 29. Wall Street projects a loss per share of $1.40, according to FactSet, and cash burn of $1.6 billion.

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

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July 16, 2025 10:15 ET (14:15 GMT)

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