American Airlines Stock Jumps as Earnings and Guidance Beat Estimates

The airline posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 29 cents a share on revenue of $13.1 billion. Wall Street expected American to report a fourth-quarter profit of 11 cents, from $1.17 during the same quarter a year ago, on sales of $13 billion, down from $13.2 billion a year ago.

Load factor, or the measure of how much of an airline’s passenger carrying capacity is used, was 83.6% in the quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of 82.9%.

“We are delivering on our commitments and remain well-positioned for the future, supported by the strength of our network and travel rewards program, our young and simplified fleet, our operational reliability, and our outstanding team,” Chief Executive Robert Isom said in the earnings release.

Shares of American were climbing 4.8% in premarket trading Thursday to $14.60. Competitor
Delta Air Lines
was rising 2.1%,
United Airlines Holdings
was up 2.9%, and
JetBlue Airways
gained 1.7%.

American’s stock found itself in an interesting spot headed into the release. Shares had dropped 42% from its July high through its October low, but has rallied 28% since then (both occurred near earnings reports).

Count Wolfe Research analyst Scott Group among the optimists. He upgraded American stock to Outperform from Peer Perform on Monday, arguing that the carrier was the only airline to hit its capacity guidance in 2023, and that there’s less risk to its earnings per share than competitors.

Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected] and Ben Levisohn at [email protected]