Boeing Rises as Cash Flow Turns Positive and Deliveries Reach a Post-2018 High

Boeing (BA) climbed more than 5% in Tuesday afternoon trading, changing hands near $223 against Monday’s $211.50 close, after a second-quarter report showed the planemaker generating cash again and delivering jets at the fastest pace in years. Investors keyed on the cash. The gain held even though the company’s adjusted loss ran wider than Wall Street had modeled.

Cash turned positive as deliveries picked up

Boeing reported revenue of $24.56 billion for the quarter, up 8% from $22.75 billion a year earlier and ahead of Wall Street’s $24.1 billion estimate. The number that moved the stock sat lower in the release. Free cash flow came in at a positive $631 million, up from a cash outflow in the same quarter last year, and operating cash flow reached $1.36 billion.

Deliveries drove the turn. Boeing handed over 171 commercial aircraft in the quarter, up 14% from a year earlier and its highest total since 2018. The Commercial Airplanes unit booked $11.75 billion in revenue and narrowed its operating margin to negative 2.7% from negative 5.1% a year ago. Total backlog reached a record $715 billion, covering more than 6,200 commercial jets.

The quarter was not clean. Boeing’s core loss widened to $0.76 a share, against the $0.30 loss analysts had penciled in, and a $280 million charge on the VC-25B program, the delayed Air Force One replacement, weighed on the defense side. On a reported basis the net loss was $428 million, narrower than the $612 million loss a year earlier. Defense, Space & Security revenue rose 13% to $7.48 billion. Cash and marketable securities ended the quarter at $20 billion.

The stock had been sliding into the print

BA came into Tuesday well off its highs. The shares peaked at $234.54 on July 6, then fell to a July low of $204.80 on the 21st before steadying at Monday’s close. Tuesday’s move puts the stock up nearly 11% over the past 90 days and back to early-July levels. Even after the pop, it trades 12% below its 52-week high of $254.35 and 26% above the 52-week low of $176.77.

Volume backed the move. More than 7.2 million shares changed hands by early afternoon, about 1.4 times the stock’s 20-day average. Boeing carries a market value of $176 billion.

What to watch

Production is the number to watch next. Boeing has been lifting 737 MAX output toward 47 jets a month after the FAA cleared higher rates earlier this year, and chief executive Kelly Ortberg said in May the company had met the requirements to run at that pace. Holding the delivery cadence that fed this quarter’s cash is the open question for the second half. Management has guided to $1 billion to $3 billion in free cash flow for the full year, and the first-half swing to positive gives it a base to build on.

The results land in the busiest week of earnings season, with several megacap technology names due later and a Federal Reserve rate decision on Wednesday. For Boeing, the near-term markers are its own: monthly delivery counts and any regulatory word on lifting the production rate further.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.