Boeing’s Stock Slides After Wall Street Analyst Says FAA Probe Will Open ‘A Whole New Can of Worms’

Planemaker Boeing’s stock has taken another tumble after Wall Street analysts downgraded the company’s shares in the wake of the door plug of an Alaska Airlines-operated flight blowing off shortly after take-off earlier this month. Wells Fargo analyst Matthew Akers downgraded shares of Boeing to Hold from Buy in a report entitled “FAA audit opens up a whole new can of worms,” published on Jan. 16. Mr. Akers shared his skepticism that Boeing would receive a “clean” audit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), noting that the company is at risk of significant production and delivery delays. “Boeing has struggled with quality issues for some time, [the] FAA’s audit is limited to MAX 9 for now, but it’s feasible that findings could expand the scope to other MAX models sharing common parts,” he wrote. “Given Boeing’s recent track record, and greater incentive for FAA to find problems, we think the odds of a clean audit are low.”...