What Would It Take For GE Aerospace Stock To Move Higher?
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GE Aerospace (GE) raised its 2026 forecasts during its October 20, 2026 call, projecting revenue to grow 19% to 20%, up from the high teens. Yet the stock lost 1.7% over the past year, trailing the 16.5% return of the S&P 500. On the same call, management pointed to LEAP engine servicing, which remains at an early stage: maintaining LEAP engines that are already flying. That business could help lift the stock. What is it, and how far along is it?
LEAP Engines Are Still Early In Their Service Life
The business is the regular maintenance of LEAP engines, which fly on A320neo and 737 MAX jets. Management expects the number of LEAP engines in service to more than double between 2025 and 2030.
The first proof already appears in the results. LEAP shop visits, which happen when an engine comes in for maintenance, grew about 40% from a year earlier in fiscal Q3 2026. Yet management said a LEAP shop visit brings in about half the revenue of one on the older CFM56, because the LEAP is so early in its life. The company expects the work done on each visit to increase in 2027.
LEAP service revenue could therefore grow in two ways: through more engines in service, and through more work on each one as the fleet ages.
How Big Is GE Aerospace’s Commercial Engine Business?
LEAP servicing falls under Commercial Engines & Services, a segment that brought in 72.7% of GE Aerospace’s revenue in fiscal 2025. The unit also grew faster than the rest of the company, with revenue rising 23.9% that year, compared with 11.4% at Defense & Propulsion Technologies.
Management expects commercial services revenue to grow at a low double-digit rate in 2027. Executives pointed to the entire commercial installed base, which grows at a low to mid-single-digit rate each year, along with more work per visit, price, and a backlog of over $170 billion.
GE Aerospace stock closed on October 21, 2026, 22.3% below its highest close of the past year. Even so, it trades at 34.3 times its earnings for the twelve months to June 2026, compared with 23.0 for the S&P 500, so the price appears to assume that strong growth continues.
Why Does GE Aerospace Expect Flat Margins In 2027?
Management expects adjusted margins in 2027 to stay in line with 2026, while GE Aerospace absorbs about $300 million more in GE9X engine losses than in 2026. The company expects margins to widen starting in 2028, as the GE9X losses start to come down and margins on LEAP services rise to those of its services business as a whole. LEAP servicing therefore appears set to add to sales before it adds much to margins.
On the October 20 call, an analyst asked how higher fuel prices and weaker airline profits could affect growth. Management called the environment dynamic, but it ties its service business to departures, which rose 1% in the third quarter and which it expects to grow in 2027.
GE Aerospace is expected to report again in January 2027, when management says it will provide fuller guidance for 2027. Commercial services revenue growth is the measure to watch. That growth was 17% in fiscal Q3 2026, and management expects it to slow to low double digits in 2027.
How To Act On GE?
Not necessarily on GE Aerospace alone, if your goal is long-term wealth. Wealth is built by owning the companies that keep outperforming, the leaders of their industries, wherever they are. GE Aerospace is one. Over the five years to October 2026, its stock rose 368%, ahead of 46 of the 51 other companies in Aerospace & Defense, where the typical company rose 64%.
Finding companies like these takes comparison across industries and sectors, and that is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does. It holds 30 quality companies in equal weight and, since its inception in September 2020, has returned more than 105%, ahead of a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap and Russell 2000. See how we find the leaders.
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