Al Root
Citi has a new aerospace and defense analyst. He is bullish on the future of his industry.
The sector is "at the center of a number of megatrends -- secular, multi-year growth drivers largely not dependent on the economy," wrote Citi analyst John Godyn. He launched coverage of two dozen stocks on Thursday evening.
Trends include: rising demand for air travel, increasing commercial jet production, international rearmament, AI-trained drone and missile technology, and the rise of a space economy.
"When we model out many of these trends in the years to come, we believe the end game will be the creation of trillions of dollars of market cap across the group," added the analyst, calling himself a commercial aerospace "superbull."
Commercial jet maker Boeing is one of his new Buy-rated stocks. "New management is the Megatrend," wrote Godyn. "We are as bullish on new management as an analyst could reasonably be."
Former Collins CEO Kelly Ortberg took over at Boeing for Dave Calhoun in the Summer of 2024. Orberg has been credited with stabilizing plane production and Boeing's culture early in his tenure.
Godyn's Boeing price target is $265 a share. Boeing closed on Thursday at $200.71. Shares were up 0.2% at $201.24 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.2% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.2%.
Along with Boeing, commercial aerospace stocks he rates Buy include engine makers GE Aerospace and RTX, parts suppliers Heico and Loar, as well as materials supplier Howmet Aerospace.
His GE Aerospace price target is $386. GE stock closed at $288.42 on Thursday. His RTX target is $211, almost 20% higher than recent levels. Godyn's Heico and Loar targets are $367 and $83, respectively, implying gains of about 16% for both. His price target for Howmet is $246 a share, about 25% higher than recent levels.
On the defense side of the equation, Godyn rates Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, shipbuilder Huntington-Ingalls Industries, space and missile technology provider Karman, and solutions integrator Parsons all Buy.
His price targets for the large defense prime contractors L3Harris and Northrop are $331 and $686, respectively. L3Harris stock closed Thursday at $289.86. Northrop shares were at $560.04.
Godyn's price target for Huntington stock is $376, up 15% from recent levels. Targets for Parsons and Karman are $86 and $84, respectively, up roughly 30% and 20%, respectively, from recent levels.
As for space, Godyn rates shares of Earth imaging company Planet Labs Buy. His price target is $19 a share, up less than 10% from recent levels, but Planet stock soared 35% on Thursday after it reported fiscal third-quarter numbers on Wednesday evening.
Investors hope Godyn's other favorite names have days like that in the future.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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December 12, 2025 09:01 ET (14:01 GMT)
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