What happened

As investor days go, Boeing (BA -2.87%) apparently had a good one. The company's stock traded up as much as 7% on Thursday, following a strong showing on Wednesday, as management's effort to restore credibility with Wall Street appears to be resonating with investors.

So what

Boeing didn't have a lot of momentum coming into this week's investor day presentations. Boeing shares are down more than 40% over the past five years, weighed down first by issues involving the 737 MAX and more recently the pandemic and its impact on travel.

The 737 MAX is flying again in most of the world, and airlines are slowly returning to business as usual as travel demand rebounds post-pandemic. Boeing appears to be on the upswing, but the company's comeback is likely to take years to fully materialize.

Boeing used the investor day to lay out a clear path to $100 billion in revenue and $10 billion in free cash flow in the years to come, and also guided for increased commercial aviation production by 2025. Management expressed confidence that Boeing can hit its mid-century deliveries targets even if geopolitical tensions with China make it harder to sell airplanes into that all-important market, addressing a key worry among investors.

Wall Street, by and large, was impressed. Bank of America analyst Ronald Epstein kept a neutral rating on the shares, but in a note called the Boeing presentations "a pleasant surprise" and said it was "one of the most frank conferences we have attended in years." Morgan Stanley's Kristine Liwag said the clarity and guidance provided "eases some burden" on the stock.

Now what

The talk is good, but Boeing now has to walk the walk. The outlook provided in the presentations was clearly a positive, but the real catalyst for a sustained upward movement in the stock is going to be execution on those goals.

Boeing is moving in the right direction, but investors should be conscious of potential headwinds in the quarters to come. China remains a concern. Even if management in the near term can find homes for planes otherwise destined for China, it is a massive and growing market that Boeing can't afford to just hand over to archrival Airbus. There is also a risk that a slowing global economy could cause demand for new planes to stall, putting pressure on deliveries.

Boeing's debt ballooned during the pandemic, and management has made returning to an investment grade credit rating a priority. To pay down the debt, the company needs a robust delivery environment that will boost free cash flow.

Until there is more clarity on where the economy is heading, and what it might mean for airplane deliveries, there might be limits to how high Boeing can fly.