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American Airlines (AAL) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $12.81, moving -0.85% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.27%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.47%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.14%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest airline had lost 12.29% over the past month. This has lagged the Transportation sector's loss of 4.76% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.86% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from American Airlines as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect American Airlines to post earnings of $0.55 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 20.29%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $13.56 billion, up 0.74% from the year-ago period.

AAL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.88 per share and revenue of $53.09 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +476% and +8.4%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for American Airlines should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 9.33% lower within the past month. American Airlines is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that American Airlines has a Forward P/E ratio of 4.48 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 8.07, which means American Airlines is trading at a discount to the group.

Meanwhile, AAL's PEG ratio is currently 0.08. 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. Transportation - Airline stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.32 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 177, putting it in the bottom 30% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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