Boeing picked up the pace of plane deliveries last month, an encouraging signal for the metric that investors care most about in its turnaround. The planemaker announced Tuesday that 47 jets were delivered in April, one more than in March. This number would be even higher if not for customer requirements that shifted some deliveries to May, the company said. "Another month of solid jet deliveries show Boeing's turnaround is progressing," said Jeff Marks, the Investing Club's director of portfolio analysis. The numbers show Boeing is headed in the right direction for improving free cash flow (FCF) – the best way to grade the company's financial health at this stage of CEO Kelly Ortberg's rehabilitation efforts. That's because deliveries are when customers actually hand over most of the cash for aircraft. Boeing expects to generate between $1 billion to $3 billion of free cash flow in 2026, following back-to-back years of burning cash. The company still used up more cash than it brought in during the first quarter. However, CFO Jay Malave said last month that FCF should improve in the April-to-June period before turning positive in the second half of the year. As Boeing's cash generation improves and becomes more positive consistently, earnings should follow suit. Increasing its rate of production puts Boeing in a position to deliver more planes. Boeing is currently making 42 per month of its best-selling 737 Max jets after regulators in October gave the company permission to up its output. Boeing hopes to secure approval to expand to 47 per month this summer. The Federal Aviation Administration has curtailed Boeing's production of the 737 Max since the January 2024 Alaska Airlines door plug incident , which underscored its long-running quality control problems. Ortberg took over as CEO in August 2024 to fix these issues. Shares of Boeing fell 1% Tuesday. The jump in oil prices may be behind some of the move in Boeing and its aerospace peers. A broad basket of airlines and planemakers, the U.S. Global Jets ETF , was down about 1.2% on the day. BA YTD mountain Boeing (BA) year to date performance Boeing also booked 135 net new orders in April, nearly meeting the entirety of the first three months of 2026. This brings Boeing's new orders after adjusting for cancellations to 284 for the year. That's the company's highest in 12 years for the four-month period. Tuesday's announcement comes as Boeing's Ortberg joins President Donald Trump and a handful of other big-name CEOs for a trip to China this week. Trump is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday and Friday. Ortberg's visit is the latest sign Boeing may soon break its yearslong order drought in China, a crucial market for commercial aircrafts. Boeing hasn't won a major Chinese aircraft order since 2017, stemming from U.S.-China trade tensions and its own production issues in recent years. The exact size of a potential plane order is unknown, though Ortberg himself said on Boeing's earnings call last month that it may be a "big number." In March, Bloomberg News reported the company was in talks for an order of up to 500 737 Max jets. Nothing is set in stone yet, and the market may not have fully priced this potential order into Boeing's stock yet. Ortberg said a deal would be "100% dependent" on U.S.-China negotiations and relations. That includes the outcome of Trump's meeting with Xi. "If there's an agreement at the country level ... I'm highly confident that that will include some aircraft orders," Ortberg said on the April call. "President Trump has been very focused on supporting us in international campaigns, and he's been very successful in doing that. So, I think that's a meaningful opportunity for us." (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long BA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
