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Zacks' 7 Best Strong Buy Stocks (New Research Report)
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Valued at $99, click below to receive our just-released report
predicting the 7 stocks that will soar highest in the coming month.
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Ryanair Holdings (RYAAY) Passenger Traffic Swells in April
Ryanair Holdings (RYAAY - Free Report) reported highly impressive traffic numbers for the month of April driven by upbeat air-travel demand. The number of passengers ferried on RYAAY flights in April was 16 million. This compared favorably with the March figure of 12.6 million and the year-ago number of 14.2 million.
Per a Reuters report, it was only the third time ever that Ryanair had carried 16 million or more passengers on its flights in a month. In July and August 2021, 16.8 million and 16.9 million people were transported on RYAAY flights, respectively.
Owing to the upbeat traffic, load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) was as high as 94% in April compared with 91% a year ago. Passenger volume in April was high despite the French air traffic control strikes that resulted in the cancellation of more than 650 flights.
Owing to buoyant air-travel demand, shares of Ryanair have gained 41.6% over the past six months compared with the 1% uptick of the Zacks Airline industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Ryanair expects to cut some flights in July and August due to delivery delays from Boeing.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Ryanair currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks for investors interested in the Zacks Airline industry are Alaska Air Group (ALK - Free Report) and United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.
On the back of upbeat air-travel demand and favorable pricing, Alaska Air's top line increased 31% year over year in the March quarter. The company expects to boost its fleet and workforce in 2023 to meet the anticipated high demand. ALK expects second-quarter 2023 total revenues to increase 2.5-5.5% from the second-quarter 2022 actuals.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Alaska Air's current-year earnings has been revised upward by 6.9% in the past 60 days.
United Airlines is seeing steady recovery in domestic and leisure air-travel demand. Owing to robust air-travel demand, UAL expects revenues for the June quarter to grow 14-16% year over year.
For 2023, United Airlines expects capacity to be in the high teens. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has been revised upward by more than 8% in the past 60 days.