In what may be one of the strangest bits of news to grace my monitor in weeks—and there are plenty of pieces vying for that title, I assure you—today came with a report that Barclays analysts have just upgraded Boeing (BA) stock. That news is still sinking in with investors, because shares are up fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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Barclays analysts, noted reports, hiked their opinion on the stock to Overweight, a rank that Boeing has not seen at Barclays since 2019. Barclays also hiked its price target, going from $190 to $210. The biggest reasons: improving operations, and a “brighter outlook for free cash flow.” Indeed, the report noted, a “normal capital structure” is in the cards for the next couple of years, and that even allows for the potential for “cash burn” in 2025, the report noted.
There were certainly plenty of things to point to under operational improvements. New CEO Kelly Ortberg, for starters, and the recent massive push toward quality in the 737 Max line, among others, as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s ongoing oversight. The report concluded with “…upside for the stock now mostly relies on sustained positive momentum for production and deliveries, which we believe BA is poised to demonstrate in 2025.”
That Was When The Latest Whistleblower Showed Up
But while that certainly was enough to bring hope to most anyone, the fact that another whistleblower has emerged is likely to take the shine off that hope. Douglas Dorsey, former manufacturing engineer, stepped in to offer insight on his time at Boeing, and what he had to say must have left a lot of folks very concerned, according to multiple reports.
Dorsey described “chaos” throughout the company’s operations, and “substandard work” getting into play more and more often. And Dorsey traced most of the company’s problems back to one event: the McDonnell Douglas merger of 1997. More and more of Boeing’s senior roles, Dorsey noted, were being filled by McDonnell Douglas staffers, and much of their background was not in engineering, but rather, in finance. This is not the first time we have heard this particular refrain, and hearing it from a new source only underscores the issues previously raised.
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 15 Buys, six Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 25.26% loss in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $195.26 per share implies 14.19% upside potential.
