UAL stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
August 23rd, 2019
3
United Continental Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides air transportation services in North America, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
Should I buy UAL stock?
Trading stocks requires experience and discipline, and your buying and selling decisions must come following a methodology. That's why is so important to choose your own trading strategy that fits your character as inversor. At Stocks2.com, we use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.Check the only buy setup that matches with United Continental stock now:
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | Yes |
Is United Continental stock a buy?
Everyday, hundreds of stock ratings are published by financial analysts to indicate a particular stock's attractiveness.
At Stocks2.com, we collected 12 ratings published for UAL stock in the last month.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-7-16 | Buckingham Research | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-6-6 | Goldman Sachs Group | Neutral | Buy |
| 2019-5-20 | Morgan Stanley | Equal Weight | Overweight |
| 2019-2-4 | Vertical Research | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-2-22 | Standpoint Research | Buy | Hold |
| 2019-1-9 | Imperial Capital | In-Line | Underperform |
| 2019-1-30 | Argus | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-1-17 | Imperial Capital | Underperform | Underperform |
| 2019-1-17 | Imperial Capital | n/a | Underperform |
| 2019-1-17 | Cowen | Market Perform | Market Perform |
| 2019-1-17 | Cowen | n/a | Market Perform |
| 2019-1-10 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Neutral | Overweight |
UAL stock analysis
Daily outlook
After climbing for 4 sessions, Friday United Continental collapsed a terrible -3.54%, closing at $82.53.
After climbing for 4 days, Friday United Continental collapsed a terrible -3.54%, closing at $82.53. Since SMA100d and SMA200d crossed up yesterday, UAL price slid a -3.24%. Since price and SMA200d lines crossed down on August 12th, UAL fell $-4.45 per share (-5.12%).
Weekly outlook
Shares of United Continental decreased a lame -0.49% this week. Counting this, it's been 5 sliding weeks in a row, loosing $-11.30 (-12.39%).
Price pattern shows an uptrend with two rising tops and bottoms, and now trading upwards to the $96.03 resistance. Since last week when SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up, UAL price slipped $-4.45 per share (-5.12%). Since last week, when UAL stock price broke down the 40-weeks moving avarage line, it slid $-4.45 per share (-5.12%). Trading stocks that are under the 40-weeks (that is, 200-days) moving average mark is not recommended by many experts, as it indicates that the stock has not enough institutional support. Far behind is the all-time high United Continental recorded early December and since then the price is -15.66% below that top.
UAL stock price history
UAL stock went public on February 6th, 2006 with a price of $32.561. Since then, UAL stock grew a 153.50%, with an average of 11.80% per year. If you had invested right after UAL's IPO a $1,000 in UAL stock in 2006, it would worth $1,535.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
UAL stock historical price chart
UAL stock reached all-time highs on December with a price of $97.85.
UAL stock price target is $95.60
How much a stock will be priced tomorrow or next week is quite unpredictable However, banks and other financial institutions analysts, with the help of lots of data and algorithms do their best to predict the stock prices movement. The accuracy of these stock price predictions is not very high, and you should not blindly believe and make decisions only based on what this ratings or price target predictions say. For the last 30 days we found 8 price forecasts for UAL stock:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-7-16 | Buckingham Research | Raises Target | $111.00 | $120.00 | 8.1% |
| 2019-6-6 | Goldman Sachs Group | Upgrades | n/a | $108.00 | - |
| 2019-5-20 | Morgan Stanley | Upgrades | $101.00 | $110.00 | 8.9% |
| 2019-1-9 | Imperial Capital | Downgrades | $110.00 | $73.00 | -33.6% |
| 2019-1-17 | Imperial Capital | Reiterates | $73.00 | $78.00 | 6.8% |
| 2019-1-17 | Imperial Capital | Raises Target | $73.00 | $78.00 | 6.8% |
| 2019-1-17 | Cowen | Reiterates | $94.00 | $99.00 | 5.3% |
| 2019-1-17 | Cowen | Raises Target | $94.00 | $99.00 | 5.3% |
| (in average) | $93.70 | $95.60 | 2.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Since April, when United Continental published its last earnings report, it slightly fell an unpleasant -2.35%. Unfortunately, reported EPS is not yet available in our database.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 2.75 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | 2017-10-18 | 2.16 | 2.22 | 2.8% |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-01-23 | 1.34 | 1.4 | 4.5% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-04-17 | 0.49 | 0.5 | 2.0% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-07-17 | 3.07 | 3.23 | 5.2% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-16 | 3.09 | 3.06 | -1.0% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-01-15 | 1.86 | 2.41 | 29.6% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-04-15 | 1.02 | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
Compared to 2017, last anual turnover report draw a brilliant growth of 9.31% to $41,303.00 million dollars. In contrary, its earnings margin (compared to revenues) remained stable to 5.15%, that is $2,129.00 million. To have an updated view of the financial situation of United Continental, we have calculated the trailing twelve month (TTM) sales and income figures. TTM values are the sum of the last 4 quarters and aproximate to an annual fiscal report ending in 2019-Q1 that can be compared to 2018 fiscal year results. Annual United Continental TTM sales up to March 2019 were $41,860.00 and income was $2,274.00 M USD. If we compare this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can esteem United Continental business evolution since December 2018: Annual revenues up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, raised a slightly good 1.35%. Aligned with this, profit margin (net income/sales) stayed stable at 5.15%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $38,280 M | - | $569 M1.5% | - |
| 2014 | $38,901 M | 1.62% | $1,132 M2.9% | 98.95% |
| 2015 | $37,864 M | -2.67% | $7,340 M19.4% | 548.41% |
| 2016 | $36,556 M | -3.45% | $2,263 M6.2% | -69.17% |
| 2017 | $37,784 M | 3.36% | $2,144 M5.7% | -5.26% |
| 2018 | $41,303 M | 9.31% | $2,129 M5.2% | -0.70% |
| TTM | $41,860 M | 1.35% | $2,274 M5.4% | 6.81% |
Quarterly financial results
United Continental reported $9,589.00 million in revenues for 2019-Q1, a -8.60% decline compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter earnings marked $292.00 M with a profit margin of 3.05%. Profit margin depreciated a -1.36% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 4.40%. When comparing sales to same quarter last year, United Continental sales marked a more than good increase and soared a 6.17%. Looking back to recent quarterly results, United Continental posted 2 positive quarters in a row.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $10,000 M | - | $818 M8.2% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $9,880 M | -1.20% | $637 M6.4% | -22.13% |
| 2017-Q4 | $9,403 M | -4.83% | $566 M6.0% | -11.15% |
| 2018-Q1 | $9,032 M | -3.95% | $147 M1.6% | -74.03% |
| 2018-Q2 | $10,777 M | 19.32% | $684 M6.3% | 365.31% |
| 2018-Q3 | $11,003 M | 2.10% | $836 M7.6% | 22.22% |
| 2018-Q4 | $10,491 M | -4.65% | $462 M4.4% | -44.74% |
| 2019-Q1 | $9,589 M | -8.60% | $292 M3.0% | -36.80% |
United Continental ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a stock, it's always worth to overview its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For United Continental, 0.35% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
Bearish positions for UAL stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
The following table compares ownership indicators for other stocks related to United Continental:
| UAL | AAL | ALGT | ALK | DAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $21.7 B | $12.2 B | $2.3 B | $0.0 M | $38.0 B |
| Total shares | 263.1 M | 460.6 M | 16.3 M | 0.0 M | 654.7 M |
| Float shares | 218.3 M | 396.1 M | 11.4 M | 122.8 M | 574.5 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 102.4% | 7.8% | 81.5% | 89.7% | 0.0% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.4% | 39.8% | 20.8% | 0.4% | 49.6% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
UAL summary
| Friday, August 23rd, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $85.06 |
| Close | $82.53 |
| Day range | $82.22 - $85.65 |
| Previous close | $85.56 |
| Session gain | -3.54% |
| Average true range | $2.13 |
| 50d mov avg | $88.65 |
| 100d mov avg | $86.46 |
| 200d mov avg | $86.39 |
| Daily pattern | lt02a |
| Weekly pattern | lb02a |
United Continental performance
To measure stock performance is always good to benchmark with competitors or related stocks. We compared United Continental against American Airlines, Allegiant Travel, Alaska Air, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and SkyWest in the following table:| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| UALUnited Continenta... | 2.15% | -7.72% | -3.07% |
| AALAmerican Airlines | -8.74% | -24.76% | -30.84% |
| ALGTAllegiant Travel | 0.60% | 1.98% | 6.67% |
| ALKAlaska Air | -0.85% | -3.18% | -5.88% |
| DALDelta Air Lines | 7.81% | 14.72% | 4.02% |
| HAHawaiian | -4.01% | -22.34% | -40.57% |
| JBLUJetBlue Airways | -1.43% | 0.00% | -7.57% |
| LUVSouthwest Airline... | 0.81% | -3.54% | -14.95% |
| SAVESpirit Airlines | -17.80% | -35.46% | -15.01% |
| SKYWSkyWest | -5.87% | 1.39% | -11.28% |
United Continental competitors
We picked a few stocks to conform a list of United Continental competitors to examine if you are interested in investing in UAL:- American Airlines (AAL)
- Allegiant Travel (ALGT)
- Alaska Air (ALK)
- Delta Air Lines (DAL)
- Hawaiian (HA)
- JetBlue Airways (JBLU)
- Southwest Airlines (LUV)
- Spirit Airlines (SAVE)
- SkyWest (SKYW)
Latest UAL stock news
- Seeking AlphaUnited Continental Holdings: Value Still RemainsJune 16, 2019
- InvestorPlace3 Big Stock Charts for Monday: Ulta Beauty, Netflix and United ContinentalJune 3, 2019
- InvestorPlaceUnited Continental Earnings: UAL Stock Gains on Strong Q1 Adj. EPSApril 16, 2019
- InvestorPlaceTrade of the Day: United Continental Stock Should Descend Again SoonApril 4, 2019
- Seeking AlphaUnited Continental Is Still Attractive, Despite Its Post-Earnings RallyJanuary 17, 2019