Boeing Lands Deal, Shares Take Off (BA)

The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) won a lucrative contract from the Air Force on Thursday for aerial fueling tankers. According to the New York Times:

Pentagon officials said decision was based solely on price. Boeing’s bid was more than 1 percent below that of its rival, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, the officials said. If the bids had been within one percent, the Air Force would have weighed 92 additional requirements for the plane as a tiebreaker, and some of those were widely thought to favor the larger EADS plane.

The Air Force said the first phase of the contract would be worth $3.5 billion, and it would cover engineering and development work on the first 18 tankers. Boeing would build 179 tankers in all for about $35 billion.

Boeing rival EADS has ten days to challenge the award, but the market evidently believes Boeing will prevail, sending its stock up sharply in after hours trading.

Covestor models that hold BA as of end of day 2/24 – click through for more info on the models:

Sources:

“Boeing Wins Contract to Build Air Force Tankers” Christopher Drew. New York Times, 2/24/2011 https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/business/25tanker.html