Air Lease Shares Up 4.8% Since Q2 Earnings & Revenues Top Estimates

Shares of Air Lease Corporation (AL) have gained 4.8% since its second-quarter 2025 earnings release on Aug. 4, 2025. The uptick can be attributed to the better-than-expected earnings and revenue performance. 

Quarterly earnings per share of $1.40 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.33 and improved 13.8% year over year. The upside was owing to an increase in AL’s total rental of flight equipment revenue, partially offset by higher interest expense, driven by the increase in AL’s composite cost of funds, and a decrease in gain on aircraft sales and trading and other income.

Total revenues of $731.7 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $705.4 million and grew 9.7% year over year.

Air Lease Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Air Lease Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Air Lease Corporation Quote

John L. Plueger, AL’s chief executive officer and president, stated, “We had a strong quarter bolstered by our new aircraft deliveries, healthy gains on sales, increasing portfolio yield, and significant Russia insurance recoveries. Demand for aircraft, both on the leasing and sales side, remains robust and bodes well for margin expansion.”

Other Statistics

Revenues from the rental of flight equipment grew 11% year over year to $679 million. The uptick was owing to the continued growth of AL’s fleet and the higher end of lease revenue. During the second quarter of 2025, AL witnessed almost $20 million from lease revenues.

Revenues from aircraft sales, trading activity and other sources grew 8% from the year-ago quarter to $53 million, owing to increases in management fee revenue and other income, partially offset by lower sales volume. AL witnessed $16.7 million in gains from the sale of four aircraft during the second quarter.

Operating expenses rose 9.2% year over year to $589.1 million.

As of June 30, 2025, Air Lease owned 495 aircraft with a net book value of $29.1 billion. The total fleet size at the second-quarter end was 789 (including the owned fleet of 495, 53 managed fleet and 241 aircraft on order).

Air Lease exited the second quarter with $454.80 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $456.62 million at the prior-quarter end. Debt financing, net of discount and issuance costs, amounted to $20.3 billion at the second-quarter end compared with $19.8 billion at the prior-quarter end.

Currently, Air Lease carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q2 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported second-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding $1.17 per share from non-recurring items) of $2.10 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.04. Earnings decreased 11% on a year-over-year basis due to high labor costs.

Revenues in the June-end quarter were $16.65 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $16.2 billion and decreasing marginally on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) increased 1% year over year to $15.5 billion. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) reported second-quarter 2025 earnings of $1.31 per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.34 and declined 0.8% year over year.

Total operating revenues of $2.93 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.94 billion and were flat year over year. JBHT’s second-quarter revenue performance witnessed a 6% increase in Intermodal (JBI) loads, a 13% increase in Truckload (JBT) loads, a 3% increase in Dedicated Contract Services (DCS) productivity and a 6% increase in Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) revenue per load. These items were offset by Final Mile Services revenue declining 10%, lower revenue per load in both JBI and JBT, a 9% decrease in ICS load volume and a 3% decline in average trucks in DCS. Total operating revenues, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, increased 1% on a year-over-year basis.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) reported mixed second-quarter 2025 results wherein the company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but revenues missed the same.

UAL's second-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share of $3.87 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny but declined 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure lies within the guided range of $3.25-$4.25.

Operating revenues of $15.2 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.4 billion but increased 1.7% year over year. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 90.8% of the top line) increased 1.1% year over year to $13.8 billion. UAL flights transported 46,186 passengers in the second quarter, up 4.1% year over year.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research