Why the Market Dipped But United Airlines (UAL) Gained Today

United Airlines (UAL) ended the recent trading session at $111.38, demonstrating a +2.5% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.38%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.51%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.29%.

The airline's shares have seen a decrease of 15.85% over the last month, not keeping up with the Transportation sector's loss of 3.4% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.08%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of United Airlines in its forthcoming earnings report. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $3.01, reflecting a 8.27% increase from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $17.77 billion, up 16.68% from the year-ago period.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $9.91 per share and a revenue of $67.53 billion, signifying shifts of -6.69% and +14.32%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for United Airlines. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. 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, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 5.45% downward. At present, United Airlines boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, United Airlines is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.97. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 11.29 for its industry.

One should further note that UAL currently holds a PEG ratio of 0.88. 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. UAL's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.72 as of yesterday's close.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 198, positioning it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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