Military

Boeing Continues as DJIA's Top Performing Stock for 2018

The Boeing Co.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has tightened its grip on its place as the best performing Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stock for the year to date. The stock added nearly 3% last week, and shares are up just over 14.5% for the first three weeks of 2018.

The second-best performer among the Dow 30 so far this year is UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH), up nearly 10.4%, followed by Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK), up 8.9%, and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), up about 8.1%.

The Dow posted an all-time high of 26,153.42 on Thursday and closed the week at 26,071.72, up about 54 points (about 0.2%) for the day. The index has gained about 5% in the first three weeks of the year.

About the only real news from the company last week was its understated updating of its price list for 2018. Boeing kept its price list unchanged for two years (2015 and 2016) before raising prices about 2% across the board last year. For 2017 the price increase is 4.1% across the board.

Rival Airbus announced record deliveries of new commercial jets last week and also released its 2018 price list. The company raised 2018 prices by 2% across the board.

Boeing’s stock price has tripled in a little more than a year, so the question for investors is how much more upside can possibly be left? Wolfe Research analyst Hunter Keay told Barron’s that he thinks that Boeing stock has nearly 30% upside to Friday’s closing price. Calling it a “brutally difficult decision,” Keay upgraded Boeing stock to Outperform and set a 12-month price target of $435 per share.

Boeing’s shares closed down about 0.7% Friday, at $337.73 in a 52-week range of $157.29 to $352.23. The high was posted Wednesday. The consensus 12-month price target on the stock is $340.04, up $28 in the past week. The low end of the price target range at $203 and the high end at $435.

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