Is Boeing’s Rating Secure?

Standard & Poor’s said on Friday that it is apprehensive about The Boeing Company’s (BA) risk in terms of order cancellations and deferrals for its commercial aircrafts. Pitted against Airbus’s A319 aircraft, Boeing’s 787 series is plagued by delays. The inaugural test flight at the end of fiscal 2009 is more than two years behind the original delivery schedule. The company has already deferred the inaugural delivery of the 787 series aircraft five times.

Standard & Poor’s is apprehensive this may force Boeing to scale back production of models 737, 747, 767 and 777 - virtually everything other than its new 787 series in fiscal 2010. This viewpoint is shared by Fitch Ratings as well. As of now, Standard & Poor’s has a Buy rating on Boeing’s shares while Fitch has an “A+” rating.

The goliath of the commercial aerospace, Boeing has witnessed falling orders in the recent times for its commercial planes on account of tepid demand for air travel and cargo services. Already, a slew of commercial airlines have cancelled or deferred their fleet additions.

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jet liners and military aerospace products (based on total sales). Boeing designs and produces commercial airplanes, defense systems and civil and defense space systems. It is also the largest NASA contractor. Non-airplane products include helicopters, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, rocket engines, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. We maintain our market Neutral recommendation on the shares.

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