UAL stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
November 19th, 2019
4
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?
You can't be a successful trader if you don't follow a methodolgy or system that assist you in choosing companies and the correct market timing. That's why is so important to define your own trading plan that matches with your character as inversor. At Stocks2.com, we like to use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.Currently, United Continental stock doesn't match any of these trading strategies, so our recommendation is not to buy.
| 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 | No |
Is United Continental stock a buy?
Financial institutions and banks publish stock ratings everyday.
At Stocks2.com, we collected 6 ratings published for UAL stock in the last 30 days. The general sentiment of these ratings is bullish for UAL stock, with 4 positive ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-9-6 | Berenberg Bank | n/a | Hold |
| 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 |
UAL stock analysis
Daily outlook
Shares of United Continental inched a slightly fine 0.56% and closed at $93.29.
United Continental ended today at $93.29 and inched a slightly fine 0.56%. For the last 41 days when UAL stock price broke up the SMA200d line, it gained $8.60 (10.15%). Since August when SMA100d and SMA200d crossed up, UAL price gained $8.00 per share (9.38%). From a daily outlook perspective, UAL is drawing an uptrend of rising tops and rising bottoms. Since its last top on Nov 7th at $95.16, price slid and found support around $91.45. Breaking down under $91.45 would cancel the current uptrend and it might slide further to test lower supports. Note that $95.16 might act as a resistance line. If United Continental breakouts over $95.16 with average or higher volume, this would be a signal that the uptrend resumes.
Weekly outlook
United Continental grew a slightly good 0.84% this week.
Since early October when UAL stock price broke up the SMA40w line, it gained $9.00 (10.68%). By mid August, SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up triggering a rise of 7.25%. Far behind is the all-time high United Continental hit early December but price is just -4.66% below that top.
UAL stock price history
UAL IPO was on February 6th, 2006 at $32.56 per share1. Since then, UAL stock grew a 186.50%, with an average of 14.30% per year. If you had invested right after UAL's IPO a $1,000 in UAL stock in 2006, it would worth $1,865.00 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 $108.30
How much a stock will be priced tomorrow or next week is quite unpredictable However, many stock price predictions are published every day by banks, financial institutions and independent analysts. 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. We detected 4 price predictions for United Continental stock published in the last 30 days:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-9-6 | Berenberg Bank | Initiates | n/a | $95.00 | - |
| 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% |
| (in average) | $106.00 | $108.30 | 2.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Since April, when United Continental published its last earnings report, it . 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
In 2018, United Continental annual turnover jumped an impressive 9.31% to $41,303.00 million USD from $37,784.00 marked in 2017. In contrary, its profit margin (compared to sales) remained steady to 5.15%, that is $2,129.00 million. To have an up to date picture 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 earnings were $2,274.00 million USD. When comparing this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can review United Continental business evolution since December 2018: Annual turnover up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, inched a slightly fine 1.35%. In line, profit margin (net income/revenues) stayed constant 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 sales for 2019-Q1, a -8.60% decline compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter earnings marked $292.00 million 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 turnover to same quarter last year, United Continental sales marked a very good growth 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 worth to check 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.
For a better understanding, the following table shows ownership data compared to other related stocks:
| UAL | AAL | ALGT | ALK | DAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $23.6 B | $12.5 B | $2.8 B | $8.6 B | $36.9 B |
| Total shares | 253.0 M | 438.1 M | 16.3 M | 123.3 M | 646.7 M |
| Float shares | 215.0 M | 389.0 M | 11.4 M | 122.8 M | 571.1 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
| Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $93.13 |
| Close | $93.29 |
| Day range | $92.42 - $93.72 |
| Previous close | $92.77 |
| Session gain | 0.56% |
| Average true range | $1.27 |
| 50d mov avg | $89.72 |
| 100d mov avg | $88.95 |
| 200d mov avg | $86.76 |
| Daily pattern | lb03a |
| Weekly pattern | |
United Continental performance
Stocks performance is always measured in comparision to the market or competitors and related stocks in the same industry. 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... | 13.04% | 15.47% | -1.63% |
| AALAmerican Airlines | 12.87% | -1.28% | -23.69% |
| ALGTAllegiant Travel | 21.43% | 20.94% | 39.85% |
| ALKAlaska Air | 21.55% | 16.88% | 3.15% |
| DALDelta Air Lines | 2.31% | 6.93% | 2.57% |
| HAHawaiian | 29.86% | 21.23% | -17.62% |
| JBLUJetBlue Airways | 12.43% | 10.82% | 5.50% |
| LUVSouthwest Airline... | 14.28% | 13.78% | 11.14% |
| SAVESpirit Airlines | 0.48% | -19.68% | -26.47% |
| SKYWSkyWest | 14.50% | 3.84% | 14.23% |
United Continental competitors
We chose a few stocks to conform a list of United Continental competitors to review 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