United Airlines (UAL) closed at $95.43 in the latest trading session, marking a -5.03% move from the prior day. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.57%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.61%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.26%.
The stock of airline has fallen by 8.22% in the past month, lagging the Transportation sector's gain of 1.84% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.15%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of United Airlines in its upcoming release. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.31, signifying a 43.96% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $14.14 billion, showing a 7.04% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $13.34 per share and revenue of $63.79 billion. These totals would mark changes of +25.61% and +7.99%, respectively, from last year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for United Airlines. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. United Airlines is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, United Airlines is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.53. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 8.82, so one might conclude that United Airlines is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can also see that UAL currently has a PEG ratio of 0.53. 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 Transportation - Airline industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.51 as of yesterday's close.
The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 22, which puts it in the top 9% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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