Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) disaster proved to be a saving grace for aircraft component manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:SPR), as word emerged that it might not have had anything to do with the recent Alaska Airlines flight disaster. That was enough for investors, who sent Spirit’s stock up nearly 8% in Wednesday morning’s trading session.
Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
- Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
The latest reports note that the Alaska Airlines incident comes back to a door plug that was put in place of an emergency exit that wasn’t being used on the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane in question. The door plug was subsequently removed and reinstalled later by Boeing mechanics, who didn’t do the job correctly. That ultimately led to the door plug’s failure and effectively took Spirit AeroSystems, which manufactured it, out of the line of fire with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or anyone else.
Meanwhile, Boeing is launching a series of “quality stand down” events that are halting employees’ normal run of work to “focus on improvements.”
New Deals Don’t Hurt Either
That’s good enough news for anyone, but Spirit AeroSystems followed that up with some more actively good news. Specifically, it set up a new deal with GMR Aero Technic to set up a repair service for aircraft nacelles at GMR’s Hyderabad base maintenance operation. GMR was already an authorized repair center for Spirit aircraft, but this deal essentially expands the partnership. The improvements, by extension, will make GMR Aero Technic much more valuable to its customer base and help build a new line of business for Spirit.
Is Spirit AeroSystems a Buy or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SPR stock based on eight Buys, nine Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 12.57% loss in its share price over the past year, the average SPR price target of $31.56 per share implies 8.87% upside potential.
