Boeing's Delivery Pace Is Finally Accelerating. Here's the Free-Cash-Flow Math Bulls Love.

Boeing's (NYSE: BA) recent results helped confirm the improvement in its single most important operational metric: airplane deliveries from Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). It's a positive development and helps build the buy case for the stock.

Boeing's deliveries matter

The chart below shows the strength of the relationship between BCA deliveries and the company's free-cash-flow (FCF) generation. This is completely understandable given that the BCA segment is its core business. Moreover, the best way Boeing can grow its profit margins is by ramping up deliveries, as it has a massive fixed cost structure. As more aircraft roll off the production line, the unit cost of each airplane will fall because fixed costs are spread across more aircraft.

If the Wall Street consensus from Visible Alpha is a guide, Boeing's delivery ramp will reach $10 billion in 2028. Given that the company's market cap is only $175 billion, it would be trading at a very attractive valuation.

Boeing is ramping up deliveries

The 737 MAX narrow-body is the key program to monitor, and the good news is Boeing has ramped up its production rate from 38 a month in 2025 to 42 a month at the end of 2025. Furthermore, according to CEO Kelly Ortberg on the recent earnings call, "On 737, we're now ramping to 47 airplanes per month after a successful Capstone review in May and expect factory rollouts to reach 47 per month this summer."

If Boeing continues to ramp up its narrow-body and wide-body deliveries according to its plans, then its FCF growth will support share price appreciation.

Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Boeing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.