Should You Buy It: Spirit Aerosystems

With Boeing and Airbus as customers, Spirit is insulated against the possibility that one carrier will take a lot of market share form the other. However, Boeing will still likely remain as the largest customer for the foreseeable future.

At current levels, Spirit is valued at just 8.7 times expected 2008 earnings of $2.36 a share. As measured by Bloomberg, this represents a 39% discount to the company's peers. Spirit also has a stable balance sheet, with debt a manageable 18% of total assets.

While I wouldn't say that Spirit is already pricing in the worst-case scenario for high fuel prices and lower airline capacity, I also don't believe that airlines will be cancelling orders for the new, more fuel-efficient planes left and right.

With that in mind, Spirit appears attractive to purchase at current levels.

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David Peltier is a research associate at TheStreet.com. In keeping with TSC's editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Peltier appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

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