It was just a few days ago when we heard that Air India was interested in buying the refused Chinese planes that China turned away as the result of the tariff war. And that gave aerospace stock Boeing (BA) a boost back then. Now, another potential buyer has come forward, ready to deal, and that is also giving Boeing a boost. As a result, Boeing shares are up over 2% in Monday afternoon’s trading.
Aeroflot stepped in after hearing several Boeing aircraft were available for immediate purchase, though not without some caveats. Air India then stepped up as well, without the caveats, ready to make a deal. Now, Riyadh Air in Saudi Arabia is ready to join in the hunt, and there may be enough planes to go around.
Reports noted that there may be “dozens” of planes involved here, and Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas has made it clear Riyadh Air is ready to deal. “What we’ve done…is made it quite clear to Boeing, should that ever happen, and the keyword there is should, we’ll happily take them all,” Douglas said in an interview with Reuters. Given that the jet market remains “tight,” it is a safe bet that the Chinese planes will easily find new buyers. We have already seen three such buyers step forth.
Bernstein Boost
Meanwhile, analysts are giving Boeing a leg up as well. Douglas Harned, analyst with Bernstein—who has a four-star ranking on TipRanks—boosted the rating and the price target on Boeing, which likely contributed to Boeing’s gains today. Harned bolstered the rating from Market Perform to Outperform, and sent the price target up from its previous level of $181 to a new $218.
That represents, roughly, a 23% premium against Friday’s closing numbers, reports note. Basically, Harned notes, Boeing’s turnaround project is bearing fruit, and in a big way. Boeing has now basically recovered to the point where it is on track to grow like the Alaska Air (ALK) door plug incident never happened. Naturally, Boeing still has problems. Controversies aplenty, government overwatch, and more are all on the table. But Boeing is likely to come out of all of this stronger, Harned notes.
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, three Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 4.9% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $200.47 per share implies 10.2% upside potential.
