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United Airlines (UAL) Stock Slides as Market Rises: Facts to Know Before You Trade

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United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) closed the latest trading day at $43.19, indicating a -0.07% change from the previous session's end. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 1.11%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.24%.

Heading into today, shares of the airline had lost 2.04% over the past month, lagging the Transportation sector's gain of 0.33% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.48% in that time.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of United Airlines in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings report is set to be unveiled on April 16, 2024. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.54, up 14.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $12.41 billion, indicating an 8.62% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $9.72 per share and revenue of $57.51 billion, which would represent changes of -3.28% and +7.06%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for United Airlines. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.6% lower. As of now, United Airlines holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, United Airlines is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 4.45. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 8.83, so one might conclude that United Airlines is trading at a discount comparatively.

It's also important to note that UAL currently trades at a PEG ratio of 0.59. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. UAL's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.75 as of yesterday's close.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 48, which puts it in the top 20% 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 follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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