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United Airlines (UAL) Registers a Bigger Fall Than the Market: Important Facts to Note

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United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $51.34, demonstrating a -0.95% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.6%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.86%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.08%.

Shares of the airline have appreciated by 2.29% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Transportation sector's loss of 3.3% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 3.15%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of United Airlines in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $4.02, signifying a 20.08% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $15.31 billion, up 8% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $9.93 per share and a revenue of $57.84 billion, demonstrating changes of -1.19% and +7.68%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for United Airlines. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. 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. 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, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.26% higher. As of now, United Airlines holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

From a valuation perspective, United Airlines is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 5.22. This expresses a discount compared to the average Forward P/E of 8.79 of its industry.

Also, we should mention that UAL has a PEG ratio of 0.51. 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. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Transportation - Airline industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.64.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 186, which puts it in the bottom 27% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. 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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