American Airlines (AAL) is a stinker of a security, let’s just be brutally honest about that. Sure, there’s the matter of AAL stock losing nearly 21% on a year-to-date basis, which is not a flattering statistic. However, when you look at the five-year chart, the loss of 45% truly wakes people up to the reality of the situation. For added emphasis, AAL has incurred a 64% Sell rating from the Barchart Technical Opinion rating.
Moreover, with a 60-month beta of 1.25, it’s noticeably more volatile than the benchmark S&P 500 index. Part of the wildness can be attributed to major U.S. carriers — including American — abandoning the practice of actively hedging against fuel costs many years ago. Unfortunately, this decision means that a prolonged Iran conflict could take a huge bite out of profits.
