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American Airlines (AAL) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) closed at $17.69 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.97% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.11%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.42%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.89%.

The world's largest airline's shares have seen an increase of 2.1% over the last month, surpassing the Transportation sector's loss of 6% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.7%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of American Airlines in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.60, indicating a 106.9% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.42 billion, up 2.72% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for American Airlines. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 10.16% higher. American Airlines is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

From a valuation perspective, American Airlines is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.85. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 9.18, so one might conclude that American Airlines is trading at a discount comparatively.

Also, we should mention that AAL has a PEG ratio of 0.21. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Transportation - Airline industry held an average PEG ratio of 0.75.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 38, placing it within the top 16% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming 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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