The tariff pause bump that gave most stocks a leg up yesterday has come and gone for many of them, and aerospace stock Boeing (BA) is no exception. Today, oddly, Boeing had some excellent news about new orders and some changes to the 787 to offer a wider range of retrofit options. But all this together could not overcome the urge to take profit, and shares slumped nearly 5% in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
The big win for Boeing came with another huge order in the making, as Vietjet landed a $300 million agreement with AV AirFinance to get it the necessary funding to expand its fleet. And not surprisingly, it is looking to Boeing for those aircraft. Why? Because Vietjet already has an order in with Boeing that has been on hand since 2016, and was subsequently revised in 2019. Now, in 2025, it may get an expansion on top of it.
The bad news, and what may be contributing to concerns, is that despite the fact that the agreement is now nine years old, Boeing has not actually delivered a single jet in fulfillment of that order. However, Vietjet noted that that should change with this year, hence the possibility of expanding that order later. Earlier reports noted that Vietjet was already looking into another 20 wide-body 787s, so a further order may not be out of line.
Revamping Your 787
Not surprisingly, once airlines get these planes in, they may have an urge to renovate them a little bit, to put their own unique spin on them. Boeing recently accommodated that urge with Northwest Aerospace Technologies, to whom Boeing granted a “limited license” to expand collaboration for “interior modifications” on the 787 Dreamliner.
This is the first time Boeing has handed out such a license, and reports note that Air New Zealand will be the first to benefit from this new arrangement. Boeing wants a certain amount of aftermarket modification going on, noted Bret Bolkcom, senior director of commercial modifications. And with this license, Boeing gets that much closer to making it happen.
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 12 Buys, five Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 10.68% loss in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $194.07 per share implies 25.33% upside potential.
