Wall Street sentiment on Boeing is improving as 737 MAX production increases

CNBC

05-06-2025

Sentiment on Wall Street been strengthening steadily on Boeing shares, with the aerospace behemoth finally gaining some momentum. Sixty-nine percent of analysts surveyed by FactSet rate Boeing either buy or overweight. That's up from 52% at the end of 2024. Consensus price targets call for about 2% upside from Wednesday's close. The stock has been on a tear in 2025 as well, with a gain of nearly 20%, while the S & P 500 has ticked up 1.5%. JPMorgan, Wolfe Research and Bernstein are among the Wall Street shops that have raised price targets for Boeing stock over the past month. JPMorgan and Wolfe Research both attributed their more upbeat view to the improved pace of production for the troubled 737 MAX and a record-breaking order from Qatar Airways that followed President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle Eastern country. For Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned, Boeing's ability to steadily increase monthly production of its 737 MAX, with the hopes of stabilizing at around 38 per month, is a key reason he thinks sentiment has shifted. "This stock is a momentum-type stock, and people will want to be in it well ahead of when they're actually there," Harned told CNBC when discussing the company's monthly production goals. "What you've seen is slowly, but surely, skeptical people have started to see the evidence — or hear about it at least — in a more compelling way than in the past." Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last month that the company was resuming plane deliveries to China in June, after the Trump administration's trade war prompted a pause. Ortberg also told Bernstein at the firm's Strategic Differences Conference last month that Boeing could produce as many as 42 737 MAX planes by the end of the year. "We think of this as truly 'back to the future' as we look at how the stock behaved back before 2019, prior to the 737MAX groundings and Covid, when there was optimism about the future," Harned wrote in a Monday note, where he also labeled Boeing stock a top pick. Harned's $249 per share price target implies about 17% upside from Wednesday's $211.98 close. BA YTD mountain Boeing stock in 2025. Boeing's troubles extend back to 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed killing all 189 aboard. After a second deadly crash, the 737 MAX fleet was grounded for 20 months . Just last year, Boeing faced more trouble after the door flew off of one of its 737 MAX 9's midair. Wolfe Research analyst Myles Walton said in a May note to clients that he had already been optimistic that 2025 would see significantly improved production times for the 737 MAX fleet, however, the Qatar order provided more confidence that the stock could continue to run. "A Big Beautiful Order should help (not yet) big beautiful cash flow," the analyst said. Walton upped his price target to $230 per share from $195 last month, which equates to about 9% upside from Wednesday's close. "With balance sheet concerns addressed for the next few years and a backlog of ~$500b, we see potential for BA to outperform if the company can improve execution," JPMorgan analyst Seth Seifman wrote in a note last month. "Specifically, this means gradually increasing production of 737s and 787s while bringing the 777X closer to entering service." Despite Seifman's optimism, JPMorgan's $200 per share price target implies shares could slide 6% from here.