Boeing Replaces Apple as DJIA’s Best Performing Stock in 2017

Since topping the list in January as the Dow Jones Industrial Index’s best-performing stock, Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has trailed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and occasionally McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), in the rankings. But Boeing stock added nearly 3.4% last week while Apple’s shares dropped 4.5%, and Boeing is now the best performing DJIA stock for the year to date. In fact, Apple fell to third place and now trails McDonald’s.

Boeing announced an order for 50 of its 737 MAX passenger jets last week from a China-based leasing firm in a deal valued at $5.8 billion at list prices. The company is also reportedly near another deal valued at around $5 billion with India’s SpiceJet and Indonesia’s Lion Air.

Those deals are expected to be announced at the Paris Air Show that officially begins Monday. The SpiceJet and Lion Air orders are expected to be the first for Boeing’s 737 MAX 10 (737-10), a stretched version of the 737-9 that is being launched at the show.

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Boeing also announced a streamlining of its defense and space division last week, cutting about 50 executive positions and reorganizing the division into four smaller segments. The defense business moved its headquarters from St. Louis to the Washington, D.C., area in an effort to be nearer its customers.

This year’s biennial Paris Air Show is expected to result in around 200 new orders and commitments for both Boeing and its arch-rival Airbus. That’s about equal to last year’s new orders taken at the Farnborough Airshow, where Airbus wound up with 197 new orders and commitments to 182 for Boeing. However, it’s only about half the total orders taken at the 2015 Paris show when Airbus took about 421 new orders and commitments compared to Boeing’s total of around 331. At the Paris show in 2013, Boeing and Airbus combined to sell more than 900 airplanes at a sticker price of about $135 billion.

Boeing stock closed at $196.44 on Friday after posting a new 52-week high of $197.95 earlier in the day. The stock’s 52-week low is $122.35 and the 12-month consensus price target is $189.29.

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