An earlier version of this report confused Spirit Aerosystems and Spirit Airlines. It has been corrected.
Bernstein analysts upgraded Boeing Co.
BA,
and Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc.
SPR,
to outperform on Wednesday and said they expect international traffic and aircraft demand to start to improve as COVID-19 vaccines begin to be administered in most major markets. “The story is not totally clean,” a team led by Douglas S. Harned wrote in a note to clients. “Some countries (e.g. China, Vietnam, Australia) must fight against lockdown strategies that block travel when single cases arise. But, we now see paths for most major markets to reopen, with China the slowest, with its “zero tolerance” strategy and the Beijing Olympics coming in February.” The analysts are expecting most major markets to get their vaccine programs running in the next six months to allow air travel to recover, barring the emergence of another new variant, which they do not expect. Boeing’s stock price target was raised to $279 from $252, while Spirit’s was lifted to $66 from $53. Boeing shares were up 2.3% premarket and have gained 4.7% in the year to date. The U.S. Global JETS ETF
JETS,
has gained 8% year-to-date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
has gained 12%.
