In the latest trading session, United Airlines (UAL) closed at $74.65, marking a -1.78% move from the previous day. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.67%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.61%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 1%.
Shares of the airline have appreciated by 10.06% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Transportation sector's gain of 9.33% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 10.65%.
The upcoming earnings release of United Airlines will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $3.71, reflecting a 10.39% decrease from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $15.32 billion, indicating a 2.21% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $9.98 per share and a revenue of $58.77 billion, signifying shifts of -5.94% and +2.99%, respectively, from the last year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for United Airlines. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.69% lower. Right now, United Airlines possesses a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).
In terms of valuation, United Airlines is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.62. This indicates a discount in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 9.02.
One should further note that UAL currently holds a PEG ratio of 1.21. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. UAL's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.93 as of yesterday's close.
The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 151, putting it in the bottom 39% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming 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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