Howmet Aerospace (HWM): Meeting Strong Visible Demand Remains Top Priority; All Stars Takeaways

We hosted Howmet CEO John Plant and CFO Patrick Winterlich at JPM's US All Stars Conference in London and maintain an Overweight rating with a Dec-27 price target of $350, based on a 45x multiple on our 2028 adj. EPS estimate of $7.75 (price $225.36). We emerged with an unchanged view that the biggest focus for Howmet is managing elevated demand for its products, particularly high-end blades for aero engines and gas turbines, where HWM is the industry leader and is investing to grow capacity and advance capabilities. Aero demand remains robust, especially for Engine Products, as evidenced by 34% 1H growth in Commercial Aero sales in that segment, reflecting new capacity that began ramping last year with more coming in 2H26 and beyond, including through 2028. Howmet estimates its airfoil share exceeds 50% and should be higher for cutting-edge blades. Regarding GE Aero's proposed CPP acquisition and SpaceX's vertical integration plans, we expect GE Aero to source more blades internally t