Al Root
Boeing posted solid fourth-quarter delivery numbers on Tuesday. A strong finish to 2025 isn't what investors care about most, but it does offer something important: hope after a brutal stretch of years.
Boeing delivered 160 jets in the final three months of 2025, up from 57 a year ago. Boeing delivered 115 MAX jets, up from 35 a year ago. For the full year, Boeing delivered 600 planes, just ahead of Wall Street's expectations, according to FactSet.
It was Boeing's best year since 2018, the last time the company reported a full-year profit. Since then, MAX design issues, manufacturing problems, the pandemic, and declining defense profitability have weighed on investor sentiment.
Boeing stock was up 2.6% in midday trading at $245.92, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively. That left Boeing shares down about 45% from all-time highs reached in early 2019, shortly before the second tragic 737 MAX crash.
Boeing also took in more orders for new aircraft than its rival Airbus did in 2025, noted Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu in a Tuesday report. She forecasts 654 deliveries for 2026, including 491 MAX jets, which implies more production-rate increases for Boeing's single-aisle jet. More production matters more to the stock than what better-than-expected deliveries imply for fourth-quarter numbers.
The Wall Street consensus for 2026 deliveries is a little higher than Kahyaoglu's, at about 670 planes. Importantly, more planes should equate to positive earnings and free cash flow.
Wall Street projects $2 billion in free cash flow in 2026, up from a use of about $2 billion in 2025. Eventually, analysts project $10 billion in free cash flow in 2028, with Boeing delivering about 875 jets.
How Boeing's production advances and how that cash flow estimate changes in the coming months will matter most to shares in 2026.
To be sure, investors have been giving Boeing some credit for stability and higher deliveries. Through midday trading, Boeing stock has risen 20% over the past month.
Still, CFO Jay Malave's comments about free cash flow in December seemed to catalyze the rally. Malave essentially endorsed positive annual free cash flow in 2026 and $10 billion, eventually.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 13, 2026 14:36 ET (19:36 GMT)
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