Virgin Galactic has postponed its first commercial research mission in collaboration with the Italian Air Force until at least mid-October, owing to a potential issue. The space travel company is examining a component provided by a third-party vendor for the flight control actuation system in its SpaceShipTwo vehicles. However, it does not know yet if there is a defect or if repairs are...

Shares of Smith & Wesson  fell sharply after hours Wednesday, after the gunmaker posted first-quarter revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations, even as earnings exceeded estimates.

The company’s first-quarter non-GAAP earnings came in at $1.57 per share, compared to the $1.26 per share expected by analysts polled buy FactSet.

However, revenue of $274.6 million was below the $278.6 million expected by analysts.

The company's gross margin improved to 47.3% from 40.2% a year ago.

"We believe we are well positioned for the ever-changing market conditions in our industry, to maintain our leadership position in the industry, and continue delivering impressive profitability in any environment,"  CEO Mark Smith said.

 

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson sold about $300 million of shares, in order to support his other businesses hurt by the pandemic. According to a regulatory filing, Branson sold off about 10.5 million shares, or 4%, of the company stock. That leaves him with an 18% stake. The Virgin Group continues to be the largest single shareholder in Virgin Galactic. The proceeds from the sale will...

The aircraft manufacturer also said that it will temporarily lower production rates following the detection of a new defect in some of the wide-body jets.

The company said that it will deliver fewer than half of the Dreamliners it has already produced but has not yet delivered. Last month, CEO Dave Calhoun mentioned that the company would deliver the “lion’s share” of the 100 Dreamliners in its inventory this year.

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the latest issue detected was near the nose of certain 787 Dreamliners that Boeing has produced but not delivered.

Boeing suspended deliveries of the wide-body planes in May for the second time in less than a year as the FAA reviewed the company’s methodology for assessing the aircraft.

The latest delivery delays could potentially exacerbate financial strain for Boeing.

On Friday, Boeing's latest version of its 737 MAX made its first test flight. This was the beginning of a comprehensive test program. The aerospace behemoth’s MAX 10 took off near Seattle. 737 chief pilot captain Jennifer Henderson said the airplane performed "beautifully". According to Henderson, the profile flown allowed the team to test the airplane's systems, flight controls and handling...

Boeing Co. is reportedly preparing to boost production of its flagship 737 MAX aircraft. 

On Friday, Reuters reported that Boeing could produce as many as 42 Max jets per month by the fall of next year – which would be higher than the aircraft manufacturer’s current target of an increase to 31 planes per month by the spring of next year. 

However, the implementation of the plan hinges on various of factors including demand, capacity uncertainty around some suppliers and Boeing's ability to reduce a surplus of jets already built.

Boeing has not issued any official statement on the plans yet.Last month the company reaffirmed plans to increase MAX output from an unspecified "low" rate to 31 a month by early 2022.

 

 

This is the aircraft maker’s sixth quarterly loss in a row, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on global aircraft demand.

Boeing’s adjusted core loss for the three months ending in March came in at -$1.53 per share, steeper than analysts’ expectations of -$1.16.It had a profit of $1.70 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue fell -10.6% year-over-year to $15.22 billion, but was higher than the $15.02 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Boeing has been facing challenges related to the pandemic’s impact on travel and the extended grounding of its 737 Max aircraft (following two fatal crashes killed 346 people).

Aircraft maker Boeing will start outsourcing a substantial amount of its information technology work to Dell Technologies. This is expected to eliminate 600 jobs at Boeing (around 10% of its workforce) - according to a message that Susan Doniz, Boeing's vice president for IT and data analytics, sent to employees, according to the Seattle Times. Last year, Boeing eliminated 20,000 jobs, and...

However, the conglomerate projected  but strong industrial free cash flow growth for the coming year.

General Electric’s adjusted non-GAAP earnings for the three months ending in December plunged -62% year-over-year to 8 cents per share, one penny shy of the Street consensus forecast.

Revenues fell -16.5% from the year-ago quarter to $21.9 billion, slightly above the $21.822 billion expected by analysts.

“As 2020 progressed, we significantly improved GE's profitability and cash performance despite a still-difficult macro environment.said CEO Larry Culp. 

Looking ahead, GE expects its adjusted earnings for the 2021 financial year in the range of 15 cents to 25 cents per share.

Virgin Galactic   shares rose on Tuesday, even after news of Abu Dhabi's sovereign-wealth fund reducing its holding in the space-tourism company and Susquehanna analysts downgrading the stock.

According to a regulatory filing, Mubadala Investment, Abu Dhabi's sovereign-wealth fund,  pared its stake in the company to 11.8 million shares ( 5.04%), from 14.9 million shares (7.08%).  But Mubadala remains Virgin's third largest shareholder, according to S&P Capital.

Virgin Galactic’s shares was downgraded to neutral from positive by Susquehanna analysts.Their price target on the shares $32 a share, indicating potential 5.2% downside from the shares' Friday closing price. 

Virgin announced in December that shareholders may sell up to nearly 113 million shares following the end of a lockup period. 

Harned  lowered his rating on the aircraft maker’s shares to underperform from market perform.He also cut his share-price target to $199 from $221.

“We had seen Boeing as fairly valued since the stock rose after announcements on high efficacy vaccines for covid-19,” Harned wrote in a commentary.  Harned mentioned that while the  737 MAX is now in service and deliveries have restarted, it is slightly behind the analyst’s forecast.

He also said that the five-year delivery and free cash flow outlook was only about half of his team’s 2018 outlook.

The analyst also pointed out that recently the 787 "has come under more pressure, which we do not believe the market fully appreciates.” This led him to lower  2020-21 free-cash flow estimates. "We estimate 787 issues could significantly hurt free cash flow through cost of repairs, compensation to customers, timing of engine cash payments, and less operating leverage",  Harned noted .

Aerojet Rocketdyne  shares climbed on Monday, following news that  Lockheed Martin  agreed to  buy Aerojet in a deal valued at $4.4 billion.

Lockheed will pay $51 a share for each Aerojet share, a 21% premium from Friday’s closing price.What’s more, Aerojet announced a $5 a share special dividend to be paid on March 24, to shareholders of record as of March 10 -- thereby bringing the total amount to be received by Aerojet shareholders to $56 a share.

The transaction will allow Lockheed’s defense products to expand into Aerojet’s systems for missiles, rockets and other space and defense applications.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021, subject to approvals from regulators and from Aerojet’s shareholders.

 

Boeing  shares got a rating upgrade by UBS analyst.  Myles Walton boosted his rating on the airline’s shares to buy from neutral. Walton doubled his share-price target to $300. This follows Boeing’s 737 MAX return to service, after a two-year grounding. The analyst mentioned that he expects advances coming back faster, with 50-plus-per month on the 737 in 2025 coupled with cost actions across the enterprise more than offsetting lower wide-body production (i.e., another 787 rate cut just announced).

Boeing Co.  got an approval from  Federal Aviation Administration to have its  grounded 737 MAX aircraft back to service. According to FAA Administrator Steven Dickson, he was "100% confident" in the safety of the aircraft.  The 737 MAX was grounded in March of 2019 following fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia that killed 346 people.  "We will never forget the lives lost in the two tragic accidents that led to the decision to suspend operations," said CEO David Calhoun." The FAA's directive mentions requirements such as installing new flight control computer (FCC) software, revising the existing Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) to incorporate new and revised flightcrew procedures, installing new MAX display system.            

The aircraft was halted  in the spring of 2019 following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. According to a Reuters report earlier this week,  the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in the final stages of its approval process for the aircraft. On Monday, it was reported  that the final approval could come on November 18. On October 29, Boeing CFO Greg Smith told investors,” We expect the 737 MAX delivery timing, along with the production rate ramp-up profile to continue to be dynamic as they will ultimately be dictated by the pace of the commercial market recovery, which has been slow and remains uncertain," and added, "There is no material change in the estimate for the total abnormal cost of $5 billion, and we expect these costs will be expenses incurred over this year and next year.

On Friday, Goldman Sachs analyst Noah Poponak initiated coverage of Virgin Galactic  shares  with a neutral rating. The spaceflight company got a price target of $19 from Poponak, a target that’s below the estimates of all other analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.  While Virgin Galactic aims to expand its reach in private space travel, Poponak has concerns that “time to realization of the opportunity is very long, customer adoption and recurrence uncertain, and potential for competition not insignificant”. Poponak  added, “The key question for investing in SPCE is how many people will want to fly to space and how much will they pay to do so.”   

Spaceflight company Virgin Galactic Holdings  shares climbed Tuesday, after short seller Jim Chanos reportedly said he would go long on any space company that has gone public. Jim Chanos, president and founder of Kynikos Associates of New York, made the comment at Grant’s Fall 2020 conference in New York City, (Reuters reported.) In interviews, Chanos has described his investment strategy focused on fundamental failures in market valuation, from underestimated or unreported failings in the business or the market of a particular stock. On Monday, Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses told New Mexico state lawmakers that the first test space flight from Spaceport America will take place sometime this fall.

Virgin Galactic  posted a wider-than-expected second quarter loss. The space flight company’s net loss for the quarter came in at -$63 million, or -30 cents a share, compared to the -26 cents a share loss expected by analysts polled by FactSet.In the year-ago quarter, the company had a loss of -$41 million, or -23 cents a share. Virgin Galactic said that it continued to make progress on its test flight program, including conducting two successful glide flights from Spaceport America.

Aerospace parts maker Woodward  is planning to merge with Hexcel (which makes lightweight materials for aircraft, space and defense equipment). Under the all-stock merger, current Woodward shareholders will own about 55% of the new company called Woodward Hexcel. Woodward shareholders will get to have the same number of common stock shares in the newly combined company as before.  The combined entity is valued at $6.4 billion. Woodward will be raising its quarterly cash dividend to 28 cents a share, as part of the deal. The combined company – set to be among the aerospace industry’s largest suppliers - will generate estimated net revenues of $5.3 billion (based on last year’s revenues), while  having around 16,000 employees, and operations in 14 countries.   Woodward Hexcel expects to save around $125 million in annual cost synergies by its second fiscal year. The new company plans to invest $250 million on research and development

Boeing  faces a $5.4 million penalty for allegedly installing faulty parts on 178 of its 737 Max aircraft, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA indicted that the faulty parts were produced by Southwest United Industries in late June and early July of 2018, and then shipped to Spirit AeroSystems which then delivered them to Boeing. According to the agency, Boeing failed to adequately oversee its suppliers’ compliance with the company’s quality assurance system. Last year, Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft model was grounded following two fatal crashes that killed hundreds of passengers.What’s more, emails exchanged among Boeing employees (revealed this week) showed them questioning the safety of the aircraft .