MW Boeing is making a positive turn, says analyst upgrading stock to buy

By Steve Goldstein and James Rogers

'After years of troubles, things seem to be taking a more positive turn for Boeing,' analyst says

Troubled aircraft maker Boeing was given an upgrade by an analyst who said a turnaround effort will get the market to reassess the stock.

Boeing's stock $(BA)$ was upgraded to buy from neutral at Rothschild & Co. Redburn, where analyst Olivier Brochet lifted his price target to $275 from $199.

According to FactSet, the average target price on Boeing is $222, and 58% of ratings are the equivalent of buy.

Boeing's stock is up 3.2% in morning trading to $208.93. The stock has climbed 18% this year.

"After years of troubles, things seem to be taking a more positive turn for Boeing and the company appears healthier. Improvements in financials, culture, industrial processes and strategy, combined with production acceleration, should enable a reassessment of the stock in the market. Our degree of confidence in the recovery has increased in recent months, and we are starting to see a level of upside to existing forecasts that is of greater magnitude than any potential downside," Brochet said.

The additional upside from 737 deliveries, which he sees at a rate of 63 a month, and 787 deliveries, which he sees at 14 a month, could add $1.7 billion in post-tax profits versus his current model. That would lift cash-flow estimates in 2029 by 13% and take Boeing's free cash flow north of $14 billion by the end of the decade.

Analysts on average expect 2029 free cash flow of $11.7 billion, according to FactSet.

Investigators are analyzing data extracted from the black boxes of the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed two weeks ago, killing at least 270 people, according to the Associated Press.

That came more than five years after two deadly crashes of Boeing's 737 Max. In a 2024 incident, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines plane blew out midflight.

Analysts still don't expect deliveries in 2028 to exceed the 806 planes Boeing shipped in 2018.

Boeing's stock is up 5.1% in the last five days, outpacing the S&P 500 index's gain of 3.5% over the same period. There have also been bullish flows in the company's bonds in the last week, with better buying occurring in the longer-maturity bonds, as the following chart from data-solutions provider BondCliQ Inc. shows.

Independent credit research firm CreditSights rates Boeing outperform. "We have had an outperform view on Boeing for some time, really since they issued $24 billion of equity and mandatory convertible bonds last year," CreditSights analyst Matt Woodruff told MarketWatch. "Once they got that liquidity in place, we have been positive on the story. Such a big part of it has been the company getting back on its feet in terms of its ability to produce aircraft."

-Steve Goldstein -James Rogers

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June 27, 2025 11:11 ET (15:11 GMT)

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