Over the July 4, 2026, weekend, I covered Jim Cramer’s buy call on AST SpaceMobile. He was clear that it wasn’t something to flip fast. He called it a great speculative stock with a two-year money-making window. Monday morning, July 7, Cramer was back with another aerospace name, and this one is significantly closer to Earth. Cramer posted his recommendation on X (formerly Twitter).With Boeing and GE Aerospace taking off, it might be worth it to buy some HONA, which reversed after a very good run. All three are pure play aero, but HONA has the most upside imo.Honeywell Aerospace (HONA) only began trading as an independent company on June 29, 2026, after completing its spinoff from the Honeywell conglomerate. The stock closed July 6 at $237.70, down 3.82% on the session, but was trading slightly higher in premarket following Cramer’s post, according to Yahoo Finance.Cramer’s logic is worth unpacking. A freshly independent aerospace business with record backlogs, a pure-play institutional story, and meaningful upside potential before the market has fully priced in the standalone thesis.Also Read: History of Honeywell: Company timeline, milestones & factsWhy Cramer sees the most upside in Honeywell of the three aerospace namesThe comparison between Boeing (BA) and GE Aerospace (GE) that Cramer makes is deliberate. Both have been bullish in 2026, driven by the same commercial aviation recovery and defense spending cycle that benefits Honeywell Aerospace. He argues that HONA, being newly public and not yet fully discovered by institutional investors who previously held it only as part of the Honeywell conglomerate, carries the most re-rating potential.As a spinoff, HONA is still in the early stages of building a standalone investor base. Conglomerate holdout sellers, who received shares as part of the separation and do not want aerospace-only exposure, create mechanical selling pressure in the weeks after a spinoff. More Jim Cramer:Jim Cramer surprises investors with his favorite stock pickJim Cramer says it’s time to buy one surging space stockJim Cramer makes bold buy call on one booming energy stockThat technical dynamic often depresses freshly spun shares below fundamental value temporarily. Cramer appears to be reading the recent pullback in Honeywell Aerospace as exactly that kind of post-spinoff dip.CEO Jim Currier framed the independence thesis clearly at the company’s investor day. “We have a purpose-built management team just solely focused on one strategy, one mission as opposed to disparate missions of a conglomerate,” Currier told CNBC. “The greatest growth for us is occurring in the commercial transport market and in defense and space.”What Honeywell Aerospace actually is — $78 billion in market value and record backlogsBefore the spinoff, the aerospace division was consistently the primary growth driver inside the Honeywell conglomerate, delivering margin expansion and strong order flow year after year. Honeywell Aerospace generated as much as $15 billion in annual revenue in 2024, from a balanced mix of commercial and military defense contracts, according to company disclosuresThe business makes aircraft engines, avionics, auxiliary power units, and a range of aviation systems. In a recent CNBC report, Currier noted that HONA has “record” backlog orders from both Airbus and Boeing. That positions HONA directly inside the two most important commercial aircraft production ramps in the world right now.Related: Jim Cramer gets Micron CEO to reveal what’s next for AI chipsThe parent Honeywell reported a backlog approaching $38 billion at the start of 2026, with orders up 7% year over year, according to the Q1 2026 earnings release. That foundation transferred to the standalone aerospace entity.The standalone 2026 projections, per CNBC reporting, call for adjusted EBITDA of $4.65 billion to $4.75 billion, with free cash flow of $1 billion to $1.5 billion in the second half of 2026 alone. Brokerages are forecasting adjusted 2026 EPS of $8.34, according to the same reporting. By 2030, Honeywell Aerospace is targeting annual earnings of at least $6.5 billion and free cash flow of at least $4 billion.
Honeywell Aerospace (HONA) only began trading as an independent company on June 29, 2026, after completing its spinoff from the Honeywell conglomerate.LightRocket via Getty Images
The long-term targets and why the Honeywell standalone story matters for youCramer’s “most upside” call rests on a specific dynamic that spinoff investors understand well. When a division gets separated from a conglomerate, the market often takes time to assign it a multiple appropriate for a pure-play business rather than the blended discount it received within a diversified parent.Honeywell Aerospace is targeting 6% to 8% organic annual sales growth through 2030 and 9% annual earnings growth over the same period, according to a report by Seeking Alpha. Related: Honeywell Aerospace makes strong debut after spinoffThat growth profile, delivered with the margins of a tier-one aerospace supplier, is the type of story that typically commands a premium multiple once institutional ownership normalizes.Here is my take on the setup. Cramer is identifying the window between the mechanical post-spinoff selling pressure and the point where the standalone story is fully priced in. At $237 with record commercial and defense backlogs, a clear growth runway to 2030, and a management team that has been liberated from conglomerate capital allocation constraints, the investment case is straightforward. Currier and his team now have nothing to hide behind and nothing to blame. The aerospace cycle is their opportunity to capture, and the standalone structure is designed precisely for that.Related: Honeywell approves aerospace spinoff to launch 2 public companies