Should Boeing really be in the Dow? A look at the struggling stock

Boeing has been a constituent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for astir 4 decades. As 1 of conscionable 30 American stocks successful 1 of the astir wide followed bellwether indexes successful the world, it is simply a portion of galore investors’ portfolios.

Still, Boeing has faced challenges. It utilized to wage dividends since it became a publically traded institution much than six decades ago. In 2020, it decided to halt payments arsenic a mode to sphere currency and enactment up its finances. Boeing returned to profitability successful 2025, but whether it volition resume dividend payments remains to beryllium seen.

Given the company's past of fatal crashes and different scandals, and the information that it wasn't profitable from 2019 to 2024, galore investors wonderment wherefore Boeing remains a portion of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Here's a look astatine Boeing's existent concern and wherefore it remains a important constituent of the cautiously curated index.

Should Boeing stay successful the Dow?

While Boeing has mislaid wealth from 2020 to 2024 amid the COVID-19 situation and the fallout from 2 fatal 737 MAX crashes, determination are different factors to see erstwhile determining whether it should stay a Dow component.

According to the Averages Committee of the S&P Dow Jones Indices — committee that oversees enactment for inclusion successful the Dow — determination are assorted factors to consider: the company’s reputation, its past of sustained growth, wide capitalist interest, and its assemblage practice of the broader market.

Share terms

Despite the yearly losses, Boeing’s stock terms remains precocious comparative to different stocks successful the price-weighted Dow. The banal reached astir $400 successful 2019 pursuing grounds profits, but it ne'er fell beneath $100 implicit the 5 years it mislaid money. After returning to nett successful 2025, the banal was trading adjacent to $250 arsenic of mid-May 2026.

In comparison, erstwhile General Electric’s stock terms was adjacent to dipping beneath $10 amid important fiscal setbacks, the banal was removed from the Dow successful 2018 and replaced with Walgreens. A fewer years later, GE was spun disconnected into 3 antithetic companies. It had been portion of the Dow since 1907.

Related: Is Boeing a bully semipermanent investment? Record backlog successful defense, commercialized aircraft

Boeing titled its 2017 yearly report, “2017 Top Dow Performer,” erstwhile the banal gained 89% versus the Dow’s 25% gain. “Our beardown show inclination — underpinned by our sizeable backlog, a ample and increasing aerospace and defence market, and our affirmative aboriginal outlook — helped marque Boeing the Dow’s top-performing institution successful 2017, arsenic measured by banal terms and full shareholder returns."