BoeingBABUY ON WEAKNESSAug 25, 2023Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 05, 2026. Market Open.
Probably two different animals in terms of exposures. Which one you prefer depends on what you're looking for.
BA is coming off a very difficult time in terms of culture -- relationship with FAA, turnaround, planes grounded. Tough road, but hopefully coming off the bottom. Growing ~14%. Recently announced increase in production levels. This may improve FCF.
LMT growing at a slower rate of 5%. Much more exposure to defense. Robust spending on defense around the world.
Boeing continues to recover from its problems of a few years back, and is winning orders again. The stock is up 31% in the past year. Net debt is still very very high (27x cash flow) but EPS is expected to rise 10-fold into 2027, after seven straight years of losses. The sector rally has helped sentiment here for sure. The stock is now very expensive on valuation. The analysts favour it more than before, certainly, but it would still not make their top five in the defense/aerospace sector. Unlock Premium - Try 5i Free
On technicals, 200-day MA is slowly trending higher and that's positive. Stock price is above that, which is also positive. Not usually a name for his portfolios, based on its products -- they can be very volatile due to global issues and product controls. Economy can affect deliveries.
Combo of aerospace and defense. In that space, he'd veer more toward pure defense.
He bought more Boeing. The company has gone through horrific years, with bad news after bad news. But they are turning the page by taking advantage of the defence and aerospace stories. They aren't going crazy with deliveries but are ramping it. They are worried about efficiency and safety, which is really important. Good profit margins.
Ups and downs over the years. OK right now and looks fairly resilient. Trending upward, so far so good. Holding above $200-210 support. You have to play the trend on this one. (Years ago, he got back in thinking all troubles were behind it, and he woke up one morning to find one of the doors had fallen off.)
He started a position earlier this month. He avoided it for a long time, but this year he wanted it to take advantage of Trump's trade war. Also, the CEO is doing a good job. He entered after the big pullback earlier this month. Buy some, then wait till it touches $200. Reasons: only 2 companies build at scale commercial jets in the world such as Japan ordering 100 Boeing jets. Making more planes will boost their cash flow. The CEO has cleaned up the messy balance sheet; has sold parts of the operation to pay off debt.
BA is still down from its high pre-2019. BA of course experienced a significant headwind in the last few years caused by airline crashes and review of the MAX. BA’s sales recently just reached back to 2019 levels, but BA is still experiencing negative operating losses. The balance sheet has $39B in net debt. Total debt is around 4.2x times the trailing twelve-month cash flow of $9.2B. The company is still on its way to recovery, sales and bookings have accelerated into double-digit growth in recent quarters. The company expects to generate $3.0-$5.0B in free cash flow in 2023. Based on consensus estimates, EBIT is not expected to come back to 2018’s level until 2024. We are generally not a huge fan of turnaround stories, however, we think BA could have potential here. The stock is showing good momentum, and could benefit from lower interest rates (if and when) as well as a lower US dollar. We would be OK with a slow accumulation, keeping a position size small while it further builds on its operational recovery.
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