Under normal circumstances, having an aircraft like Bombardier’s (TSE:BBD.B) Global 7500 would be a positive sign for a company. Indeed, when a company specializes in making private jets, the revelation that its aircraft has broken multiple speed records is usually a winner. But investors were not quite so enthused, and shares declined fractionally in Wednesday morning’s trading.
Basically, the Global 7500 from Bombardier has broken new speed records every week for most of the last year. More specifically, it has broken 50 different records and now has a top speed of Mach 0.925. That is just under Mach 1, or the speed of sound. In fact, the average speed of its 10 fastest new records is just over 1,000 km/h, which is about 230 km/h under the speed of sound.
So far, the Global 7500 has beaten the speed records from Miami to Sao Paulo, London to Bahrain, and Tokyo to Los Angeles, among several dozen others. Admittedly, the records in question are pending review by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale or the World Air Sports Federation, but the numbers look good so far.
Supply Chain Issues Are Still a Problem
Despite the impressive performance of the Global 7500, supply chain issues are, apparently, still a problem. Indeed, Bombardier has been suffering from a lack of components and the like for quite some time now. This comes at a time when demand is still high for private jets, as businesses look to beat the ongoing high costs and hassles of commercial air travel. But Bombardier is working to get its production up to snuff accordingly by reconsidering what it does in-house and what it can safely outsource.
Is Bombardier Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on BBD.B stock based on nine Buys, one Hold, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 68.69% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BBD.B price target of C$117.28 per share implies 31.9% upside potential.
