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United Continental (UAL) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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United Continental (UAL - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $87.27, moving -0.23% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.86% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.06%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.37%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the airline had gained 3.91% over the past month. This has lagged the Transportation sector's gain of 10.9% and the S&P 500's gain of 8.11% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from UAL as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 16, 2019. In that report, analysts expect UAL to post earnings of $0.68 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 36%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $9.69 billion, up 7.33% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.03 per share and revenue of $43.71 billion, which would represent changes of +20.81% and +5.83%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for UAL should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 5.85% higher. UAL is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

In terms of valuation, UAL is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.93. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.68, which means UAL is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that UAL has a PEG ratio of 0.4. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Transportation - Airline industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.91 as of yesterday's close.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 7, putting it in the top 3% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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