New Boeing CFO Delights Wall Street With Improving Outlook

Boeing CFO Jay Malave said Dec. 2 that the company expects to report a $2 billion cash burn for all of 2025, better than predicted before, and that in 2026 it will record low-single-digit billions of dollars of positive free cashflow that grows annually.

Boeing’s stock price closed up roughly 10% in regular trading on the new CFO’s affirmation of brightening financials. Malave said increasing deliveries of commercial narrowbodies and widebodies, improvements in operating returns from the company’s defense and space division, continued growth in its aftermarket and services division, and ongoing acquisition and divestiture activity all will help offset a looming U.S. Justice Department penalty and “excess” advances tied to delayed aircraft deliveries.

Malave further endorsed a longstanding management goal of reaching $10 billion in free cashflow across the company, although he declined to say what year. Still, the affirmation stood in contrast to noticeable reticence Oct. 29 when Malave—who took office in August—addressed the three-year-old goal.

“Yeah, I’m very comfortable saying that we can absolutely deliver $10 billion,” Malave told the UBS Global Industrials conference.

Similarly, Malave said Boeing will continue to try to keep $10 billion in cash and equivalents available unless and until he finds differently. “That’s something that for the time being that I’ve kind of adhered to and agree with,” the CFO said.

Interestingly for suppliers, Malave said Boeing is also likely to carry more parts inventory going forward than it did during the last production upcycle. “When you look at one of the lessons learned for us it is that we probably need to carry a little bit higher inventory than we may have in the past when we were at these kinds of higher [production] rates,” he said. The company still intends to burn down its stockpile worth “multi-billion” dollars.

Deliveries of 737s and 787s will grow in 2026, the CFO stressed. Regarding 737 deliveries, the company is eyeing 440-450 this year, including 50 or so from inventory. Next year, “there won’t be hardly any aircraft, if any at all, that will be coming out of inventory.” Stabilization of the supply chain at a monthly production rate of 42 737s will be a manufacturing priority before further rate increases are pursued.

“We are unlikely to deliver all the aircraft that we build just because of the timing of the certification process,” Malave said, referring specifically to the prolonged certification of the 737-10 variant. “Again, big picture, we expect deliveries both on the 737 and the 787 to grow despite the fact that we have fewer aircraft coming out of inventory to be delivered.”

Regarding acquisition and divestiture, Malave said the takeover of aerostructures supplier Spirit AeroSystems should close by the end of the month, pending final regulatory approval. “We think that we’ve satisfied what we need to satisfy, and we’re just waiting for kind of sign-off on that,” he said. Altogether, with paying for Spirit and selling Jeppesen and other digital assets recently, Boeing should end 2025 with $29 billion of cash and equivalents.

Malave said Boeing managers do not expect to be surprised by Spirit’s financial condition once they are allowed full access to the company’s accounting.

Finally, Malave also reiterated that the launch of any new Boeing commercial aircraft program is far off. “We’re a ways off from that,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t invest in technology development.”