Aerospace stock Boeing (BA) has not been having a good run for the last few months now, and it shows all over. However, a bit of good news has emerged, as we will finally know when the Starliner astronauts will get to come home. That bit of clarity gave Boeing shares a little extra boost in Friday afternoon’s trading.
We have long known that the status of Boeing’s astronauts has been up in the air. Or maybe, up in space, but still. Now, NASA has made it clear: Saturday, it will spill the tea and tell all when the astronauts will actually be allowed to return to Earth. Will it be sooner rather than later, taking Starliner back home with all the risks that may entail? Or will it be much, much later when the Crew Dragon departs around February?
With the reputations of NASA, Boeing, and National Space Council head Kamala Harris on the line, only time will tell just what decision comes out of this. Either way, everyone involved has already taken at least some kind of black eye from this progress. In fact, Boeing has lost $1.6 billion on this debacle already.
More Fun with Whistleblowers
And as if that were not bad enough, along comes more trouble from the whistleblowers for Boeing to address. Ed Pierson, a former Boeing manager, brought out a set of new documents detailing trouble at the Renton plant that may have contributed to two 737 MAX planes that crashed in 2018 and 2019.
One of the biggest problems revealed was “…a slew of electrical issues,” noted a Seattle Times report. This lined up well with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report that noted workers dealing with electrical parts were “…pushed to move too fast and produced defective pieces.”
Is Boeing a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 14 Buys, five Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 19.67% loss in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $217.33 per share implies 24.47% upside potential.
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