Boeing's Big Data Investments

The Boeing Company (BA) is a $32 billion business. For investors, investment in big data and big data analytics is expected to see enormous growth in the next few years. Gartner, predicts that big data spend will double in the three years between 2012 and 2015. In recent years, Boeing has made substantial investments in cybersecurity R&D and acquisitions, connecting capabilities from across the organization to bring the best of Boeing to customers.

Boeing stock is up about 14% this year. Last month, the FAA approved Boeing's certification plan for the redesigned 787 battery system. Revenue growth slightly outpaced the industry average of 6.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 14.0%. Boeing’s net operating cash flow has increased to $4,167.00 million or 42.16% when compared to the same quarter last year. Boeing has a market cap of $66.5 billion and is part of the industrial goods sector and aerospace/defense industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 17.00, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 18.00.


Boeing is focused on investing in core technologies. Among other areas of opportunity for Boeing in the days ahead is “big data.” ”Customers of its Information Solutions unit, for example, say that one of their biggest challenges is a vast and ever-growing amount of data. One of our areas of focus is developing solutions that can take in the big data, secure it, analyze it, and then provide customers with situational awareness that will give them an information advantage in decision-making and mission operations,” one Boeing official said.European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. (EAD) (Airbus Competitor) EADS rose as much as 2.87 euros to 37.74 euros in Paris, its biggest gain since Dec. 6. The company has set a target of delivering a double-digit return on sales by 2015. Net income in the fourth quarter quarter fell by almost half to 325 million euros from 612 million euros a year earlier, on revenue of 19.22 billion euros due to a merger collapse. The stock has advanced 27 percent this year.

The company plans to remain a player in the defense business. EADS will focus on the profitable areas where it will have advantages. EADS offers a cooperation program. This aims to attract ‘talent’ by developing trust-based partnerships with universities, engineering schools and cyber security professionals in areas as risk assessment, practical exercises in fighting cybercrime and legal aspects while maintaining strong links with testing and research.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) shares fell $.12 or .1 percent, to $97.18 April 12. The company show weaknesses including unimpressive growth in net income, generally higher debt management risk and weak operating cash flow. The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 161.74 and currently higher than the industry average, implying increased risk associated with the management of debt levels within the company.

The company is implementing cost-effective ways to detect and prevent fraud through analyzing huge data sets generated by various application logs at a major government agency. The company has the potential to save the government a significant amount of money. Lockheed Martin is implementing secure ITIL-based Cloud solutions at defense and civil government agencies. They benefit by significant reductions in infrastructure acquisition time.

Boeing is about twice the size of Lockheed. Both companies are about the same size when it comes to the defense industry about $30 billion. UCAV plans to be completed over the next couple of years which could end up being a Boeing win. The government wants both Lockheed and Boeing to survive, keeping the rivals competition strong.

Boeing has cut costs and increased productivity in order to better compete over its rivals. Boeing is also investing in areas that address “the macro trends” its customers are facing. They include data proliferation, persistent and asymmetric security threats, the consumerization of information technology, the government’s need for more efficiency, the rapid adoption of mobility and a shift in the business model to move to managed services.

For investors, big data and cloud computing is no doubt a huge area of opportunity today and over the next five to seven years. Investing here should be priority. Big Data companies with stability, low operating costs and longer experience will come out winners. According to Cisco, global Internet traffic will reach 966 exabytes per year by 2015. Expect Boeing to continue to evolve, developing significant projects and investments in big data to be underway.