With aircraft maker Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) earnings report out and not looking too good, plus regulators breathing down its neck, it’s not a good time for the stock right now. In fact, Boeing is down again, around 3%, in today’s trading after new reports of another whistleblower came to light. Not surprisingly, the new reports paint a troubling picture of Boeing.
The latest whistleblower is Merle Meyers, whose career at Boeing is perhaps best summarized by two documents, which he keeps in frames at his house. The first is from 2022 and thanks him for the three decades spent in Boeing’s employ. Months later, the second was generated – an open reprimand for performance issues.
Meyers describes Boeing of the last few years as being much more focused on speed than on quality, a refrain we’ve heard more than once in recent days. Meyers described how “…people get promoted by hustling parts.”
Then The Union Weighed In
It may have been surprising to some, but there hasn’t been much heard out of the union in recent days at Boeing. That changed recently when the union representing Boeing engineers came out to reveal that Boeing officials retaliated against design engineers. Engineers objected to Boeing’s plan to add new avionics systems, suggesting that some further engineering work needed to be done before the systems could be added to the 777 and 787 widebody planes.
Boeing objected, noting that such work would slow production and increase costs. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) got involved and overruled Boeing, siding with the engineers. The engineers then paid for their hubris in challenging management with their performance reviews, which reduced their pay raises and cut their chances for advancement.
Is Boeing Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 17 Buys, six Holds, and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 17.08% loss in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $230.56 per share implies 40.53% upside potential.
Is It Wise to Allocate $1,000 Toward BA Stock Right Now?
Before you hurry to invest in BA, think about the following:
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