Boeing stock tanked again Tuesday as the aerospace giant’s headaches mount, wiping out roughly $45 billion of market value in 2024 alone as high-profile safety incidents draw the ire of Washington and Wall Street.
It's been a gloomy start to the year for Boeing.
Shares of Boeing dipped about 4% to as low as $184, registering their lowest intraday price since Oct. 31 and pacing toward what would be their lowest closing price since that month.
Tuesday’s decline came after the New York Times reported Boeing failed almost 40% of Federal Aviation Administration audits of its manufacturing process for its 737 Max commercial jets and Boeing’s key manufacturing partner Spirit AeroSystems failed 54% of federal audits.
There’s “pressure mounting” on Boeing with the failed audits and the Justice Department’s criminal probe into the company tied to the notorious Jan. 5 incident in which the door blew out on a Boeing jet flown under American Airlines, Jefferies analysts led by Sheila Kahyaoglu wrote in a Tuesday note to clients.
Boeing’s stock is now down 29% this year, making Boeing the second-worst performing company listed on the S&P 500, according to FactSet data.
Among the other challenges faced over the last week by Boeing include: The mid-air loss of a tire on a Boeing 777-200 jet operated by United Airlines, the injuring of at least 50 passengers on a Boeing 787-9 jet operated by LATAM Airlines and a prediction from Delta Airlines CEO that Boeing’s 737 Max 10 line may not come to market before 2027. Boeing, which shares the smaller slice of a global duopoly on commercial aircraft production with European rival Airbus, generated 44% of its $78 billion in 2023 revenues from its commercial plane business (Defense Department contracts make up much of Boeing’s remaining revenue mix). Boeing’s share woes this year come as the S&P gained 9% to a record high, Airbus shares gained 11%, and other major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin (shares down 5% year-to-date) and RTX (shares up 6% year-to-date) suffered far narrower losses.
Wall Street analysts’ average price target of $262 for Boeing shares implies more than 40% upside for the beleaguered stock.
John Barnett, a 32-year veteran of Boeing who worked as a before blowing the whistle on the company for alleged safety violations in its aircrafts, was found dead Saturday due to what authorities called a likely self-inflicted wound.