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A Boeing 737 MAX 9.
Eric Piermont / AFP through Getty Images
Analysts like it
Airbus
slightly better than
Boeing
going into 2021.
Boeing
(ticker: BA) is slowing in an increasingly important segment of the post-pandemic world market. As a result, Airbus (AIR.France) seems to be the cleanest story to play aerospace revival.
The latest example of the
Airbus
option comes from Deutsche Bank. Analyst Christophe Menard covered the company with a Buy rating and a price target of 108 euros, which works out to about $ 130 a share.
Menard follows a move. It’s based in Paris and doesn’t cover Boeing, but there’s a clear choice for Airbus stock these days. More than 70% of analysts cover the stock level of their Buy shares. The average Buy-Ratio ratio for stocks in the
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones business average
it is about 55%.
In addition, the average analyst price target for Airbus stock is around $ 130 a share, up nearly 20% from recent levels. Boeing’s average analytics price target means a gain of about 10%. Less than half of analysts covering Boeing stock consider it a Buy.
Airbus seems to be the preferred stock for Wall Street and the European counterpart of Wall Street. Airbus has no connection to its A320 main jet like Boeing does with the 737 MAX. The MAX was established worldwide by aviation authorities for nearly two years after two fatal crashes within five months. Boeing customers have just begun to return the jet to commercial service in the past few months.
As a result of the fiasco Boeing is feeding some market share in the 737 slim body jet to Airbus. Menard calls Airbus the undisputed leader in single-axle jets and believes Boeing needs to launch a new aircraft platform to get up. A new plane will take billions of dollars of cash flow and about seven years to bring to market. Boeing was not immediately available to comment on plans to offer a new slim body jet.
Beoing has divided its main market share in the broad segment of the market, or twin-axle, but these jets serve longer routes, and international travel has been hit harder by the pandemic.
Air travel is still injured. Last Sunday, commercial air travel in the U.S. was down about 60% year-over-year. The recovery in air travel has been slow, and expectations for higher demand are linked to how quickly vaccines can be rolled out in the U.S. and globally.
Boeing stock is down a year to date less than 2%. Shares of Airbus, but less than 2%. Over the past three months, Boeing is up about 15%, about 10 percentage points better than Airbus stock. Perhaps that is the effect of reaffirming the 737 MAX. With that MAX milestone over, analysts seem to be saying that Airbus shares will have a better year.
Boeing stock is down 1.1%, at $ 209.50, in recent trading. Airbus closed down 0.5% on Thursday, at € 91.22 ($ 110.64). The
S&P 500
down 0.2%.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]