What happened
Boeing (BA +1.96%) stock got rocked for a 9% loss after reporting a pretty dramatic earnings miss on Wednesday. The good news is that -- with a little help from Wall Street analysts -- Boeing stock is clawing back some of its losses today.
As of 11:55 a.m. ET, shares of Boeing are back up 5.8%.
NYSE: BA
Key Data Points
So what
Tic-tac-toe, four in a row, investment bankers Susquehanna, Wells Fargo, R.W. Baird, and Morgan Stanley all lowered their price targets on Boeing stock today, valuing the aerospace giant's stock at anywhere from $180 to $213 per share.
Now, that sounds like bad news, but here's the thing: Boeing stock closed trading below $134 a share last night, so even the most conservative price target (it was from Susquehanna, by the way) still implies more than 34% upside in Boeing shares. It's no huge surprise, therefore, that all four of these analysts maintained the equivalent of buy ratings on Boeing despite cutting their price targets on Boeing stock.
Now what
Despite a battered defense business and supply chain problems that are dogging its 737 MAX program, all four analysts remain bullish on Boeing stock, and one reason why -- and one reason why they might be right -- is Boeing's free cash flow.
As my fellow Fool Lou Whiteman pointed out yesterday, Boeing actually beat analyst forecasts for free cash flow, reaping $3.2 billion in real cash profits even as the company reported a $6.18 per-share net loss as calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Crunching the numbers, Wells Fargo estimated that as Boeing's business improves, the company could potentially generate anywhere from $8 billion to $11 billion annually in free cash flow -- which implies that at the high end of that range, Boeing could be trading for as little as 7.6 times its future FCF number right now.
How long will it take to reach that future? According to S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates, Boeing could approach the $11 billion number as early as 2024. If you can afford to wait two years to cash in, Boeing stock just might be a buy right now.
