Alaska Air Group Ascends While Market Falls: Some Facts to Note

The latest trading session saw Alaska Air Group ALK ending at $42.96, denoting a +0.37% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.21%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.14%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 0.05%.

The airline's shares have seen an increase of 8.38% over the last month, surpassing the Transportation sector's gain of 2.88% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.94%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Alaska Air Group in its forthcoming earnings report. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $2.20, marking a 20.22% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $2.99 billion, reflecting a 5.21% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $4.24 per share and a revenue of $10.75 billion, indicating changes of -6.4% and +3.15%, respectively, from the former year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Alaska Air Group. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 1.79% upward. Alaska Air Group is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Alaska Air Group has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.09 right now. This denotes a discount relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 10.16.

Also, we should mention that ALK has a PEG ratio of 0.66. 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 the market closed yesterday, the Transportation - Airline industry was having an average PEG ratio of 0.82.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 50, finds itself in the top 20% echelons of all 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.

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