Boeing Loses Ground to SpaceX with NASA, Boeing Stock (NYSE:BA) Plunges

While aerospace stock Boeing (BA) is going great guns in military production, and its commercial aircraft are selling like hotcakes at fat camp, its space aspirations are nowhere near this impressive. New reports note that Boeing recently lost quite a bit of ground to SpaceX, and investors were none too happy. Boeing shares dropped over 3% in Friday afternoon’s trading.

Claim 70% Off TipRanks Premium

• Unlock hedge fund-level data and powerful investing tools for smarter, sharper decisions

• Stay ahead of the market with the latest news and analysis and maximize your portfolio’s potential

NASA has been reconsidering its plans for a moon landing, which is still set to arrive in 2028. Boeing, via its Space Launch System, was originally set to ferry astronauts to the moon. A Starship lander would then head up to the craft in lunar orbit, and then take the astronauts down to the moon itself. But now, Starship will dock directly with the Orion module in Earth orbit, before ferrying the whole package to the moon.

There is an upside here for Boeing, however. The SLS system is still set to be the system that gets the Orion into Earth orbit to begin with. Jared Isaacman, a NASA administrator, noted, “We’re incredibly supportive of both our HLS providers and their plans to accelerate America’s path forward to the moon.”

More Spirit, More Problems

Boeing has been trying to get its new acquisition, Spirit AeroSystems, properly patched into Boeing’s larger corporate ecosystem for some time now. And Boeing recently revealed that the process is likely to come with some hiccups, as well as some extra expense.

Operating margins are now expected to reach negative 7.5% to negative 8% this quarter thanks to the higher-than-expected expenses surrounding the takeover. Margins that were previously expected to turn positive are now projected to stay negative, and remain negative until sometime in 2027. Boeing’s chief financial officer, Jay Malave, noted that this would be a “…short-term headwind.”

Is Boeing a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 13 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 12.95% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $278.50 per share implies 43.19% upside potential.

Disclosure

Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue