Chris Mecray Quotations

My guess is it gets settled without too much time, rather than have them (the company) risk the progress they've made with Wall Street recently.

Right now, I've recommended Boeing ( BA : Research , Estimates ) for the last couple of months. I did downgrade that about two weeks on the price move. I still think the stocks continue to perform however, although I think the gains will be modest from here in the near term.

The money's coming from both side of the business. You have commercial aerospace with explosive growth. The commercial aircraft orders have been exceptionally strong over the course of the summer and also on the defense side of the business where government budgets have been picking up in the last couple of years and are not expected to continue to pick up through the next administration.

I don't think it would cripple them. Boeing is looking to reduce production. It's a more ideal time for the company to take a strike than for the union to go out on one.

First time around they were talking about charges that were purely restructuring, and now about half are operating charges. It indicates some severe problems that are creating a completely different picture at the company than we had been led to believe. It calls into question what's going to happen in following years.

I think they've got their head in the sand, failing to recognize their market share is deteriorating and will continue to deteriorate much faster than they or anyone else anticipated a few years ago.

While they won't admit it, the primary driver of lower procurement costs will be by lowering prices out there, increasing competition through versus auctions.

They have still issues with demand on a couple of key areas of their business including the space launch side, the satellite manufacturing side and demand for some of their defense transport products. I'm heading over to an investor conference this morning where I expect them to talk about the turnaround in progress. They will focus on the increasing cash flows and I think we'll get a chance to ask them about some of those strategic issues.

Neither of those companies makes a significant portion of their money in the segment. It's a low-margin business. It's not bad business, but it's not going to move the needle more than a big defense contract, (or) maybe even a medium-size defense contract.

Neither item is good news, so you can't say it's one or another. A plane crashes can always impact the stock, but it's probably not a big problem given the strong safety record of that aircraft.