Small business is good business for Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection Embraer (NYSE:ERJ). This week, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer announced new orders for 60 of its Phenom executive jets worth $188 million at list prices.
Bloomberg reports that three separate firms placed the orders: Eagle Creek Aviation and Avantair, which are both based in the U.S., and Wondair on Demand Aviation of Spain. The largest order, however, came from Wondair, which purchased 24 Phenom 100s with an option to buy 12 more.
I'll understand if this doesn't sound like much to you; Embraer booked more than $4 billion worth of business over the past 12 months alone. But don't let that fool you into thinking executive jets don't matter. To the contrary; the market is booming. Sales of executive jets from Embraer and competitors such as General Dynamics' (NYSE:GD) Gulfstream unit and Textron's (NYSE:TXT) Cessna unit reached $9 billion in the first half of the year, a new record.
And Embraer appears set to profit from the executive-jet tailwind. Witness its backlog, which has climbed back to $13.3 billion after falling to $10.2 billion in June. At least part of the growth can be attributed to accelerating executive-jet sales. (Embraer has booked 119 small-jet deals since mid-July, according to Bloomberg. That's up from 50 over the prior three months.)
Meanwhile, Embraer's stock trades for less than half the P/E-to-growth multiple of Boeing (NYSE:BA) shares and 50% lower than the PEG multiple of regional jet rival Bombardier. That won't last forever. It may not even last long. Strap yourself in, Fool. This stock is in for a ride.
Taxi toward related Foolishness:
- For Embraer to get big, it has to first get small.
- No surprises there; Embraer has been thinking small for years.
- The business has taken flight as a result.
Embraer is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection. Find out Wall Street's dirtiest secret -- as well as the Fool's "2 Top Picks" -- with our free special report .
Fool contributor Tim Beyers wonders who else, besides executives, flies in executive jets. Tim didn't own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story at the time of publication. Get an inside peek at all the stocks he owns by checking Tim's Fool profile. The Motley Fool's disclosure policy is always on time for departure.
