The latest trading session saw Alaska Air Group (ALK) ending at $43.87, denoting a -1.3% adjustment from its last day's close. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.23%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.91%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.1%.
Shares of the airline have depreciated by 26.7% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Transportation sector's loss of 24.11% and the S&P 500's loss of 12.13%.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Alaska Air Group in its upcoming earnings disclosure. On that day, Alaska Air Group is projected to report earnings of -$0.68 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 26.09%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $3.21 billion, indicating a 43.67% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $5.88 per share and revenue of $14.71 billion, indicating changes of +20.74% and +25.35%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Furthermore, it would be beneficial for investors to monitor any recent shifts in analyst projections for Alaska Air Group. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.57% lower. Alaska Air Group is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Alaska Air Group is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.56. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 6.7.
One should further note that ALK currently holds a PEG ratio of 0.28. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Transportation - Airline industry stood at 0.51 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 156, positioning it in the bottom 38% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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