So it seems like aerospace stock Boeing (BA) has been losing a lot of orders lately. The Chinese airlines turned away several completed aircraft. Ryanair (RYAAY) threatened to cancel orders for several hundred Boeing aircraft. And now, President Trump—getting sick of waiting for the new Air Force One models he had ordered back in his first administration—is now looking to refurbish an old Boeing from Qatar. Despite this, investors rallied around Boeing and sent shares up nearly 2% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
The plane in question was a former Qatari government jet, reports note, an old 747. Trump is reportedly looking to L3Harris Technologies, a defense contractor, to step in and deliver some upgrades to the aircraft and get it ready for service. After a meeting between Trump and Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s CEO, back on April 18, reports noted that that was when Trump decided to look into the refurbished jet.
Interestingly, reports note—and to answer the rhetorical question in the headline—this is not going to be a replacement for the Boeing Air Force One project. Rather, this is a stopgap, to bridge the gap between now and when Boeing can finally get the completed aircraft out the door. The refurbished aircraft, meanwhile, should be ready for service in fall of this year.
Watch Out for That Corrosion
And, in another point that Boeing did not need right now, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued another airworthiness directive on Boeing aircraft. This time, it targets several aircraft in the Boeing 767 class, and relates to satellite communications (SATCOM) parts. It turns out that some of the parts in question can develop corrosion damage, in particular, the high-gain antenna adapter plate.
Thus, the directive calls for “repetitive detailed inspections” of the part in question 767-200, 767-300, 767-300F, and 767-400ER aircraft. The nutplates along the edges of the adapter plate were particularly corroded, and in such an event, could prompt a “parts departing airplane” incident, or basically, chunks fly off. On the plus side, this impacts about 597 airplanes registered in the United States. Given that there are around 220,000 aircraft registered, the new directive applies to around 0.27% of them.
Is Boeing a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 14 Buys, three Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 3.61% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $200.47 per share implies 7.43% upside potential.
