Alaska Air Group's quarterly sales growth ranged up 74% over the past year, and top funds are big buyers of its stock. On Monday, Alaska Air stock got an upgrade for its Relative Strength (RS) Rating, from 69 to 72, after its stock popped 33% in three months. The upgrade comes amid rising travel as the pandemic fades in the rearview mirror.
The upgraded 72 RS Rating shows Alaska Air stock, which is among the top 5 among airlines, is jetting ahead of 72% of all stocks. It's approaching a key benchmark. Market research shows that the market's most winning stocks typically have an RS Rating of at least 80 as they begin their biggest runs. See if Alaska Air Group can continue to rebound and hit that benchmark.
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Alaska Air Stock May Climb Amid Added Flights
Seattle-based Alaska Air, in addition to its namesake airline, owns Virgin America and Horizon airlines. Alaska Air announced four new nonstop flight destinations recently. It added flights between its Seattle home base and Honolulu, Hawaii, starting in November priced at $149 one way. The company also announced new nonstop flights from San Diego to Washington, D.C., Tampa, Fla.; and Eugene, Ore. beginning service later in 2023.
Additionally, Alaska Air stock has an outstanding 95 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary IBD ratings, based on key fundamental and technical criteria, into one easy-to-use score. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better. It also boasts a B- Accumulation/Distribution Rating on an A+ to E scale, showing fairly heavy buying by big funds. An SMR Rating of B (on an A-to-E scale) reflects generally strong fundamentals. However, its so-so 69 EPS Rating reflects prior weakness in earnings, which continue to improve.
Alaska Air stock fell to a 37.20 intraday low on March 24. Then in early February it started working on the right side of a cup base. Its stock rocketed 33% from that bottom and is working on a cup without handle with a 53.96 buy point. See if it can clear the breakout price in heavy trading. On Thursday, Alaska Air stock traded above 49, up about 1.3% and on track for its seventh higher close in a row.
Improving Fundamentals Lift Stock Price
In terms of fundamentals, Alaska Air reported a 62 cents per share loss last quarter, much improved from a $1.33 loss the same quarter a year earlier. Alaska Air reported $2.19 EPS, then $2.43 and 92 cents in the prior three quarters. Revenue grew 31% to $2.196 billion last quarter. The company said in its April 20 first quarter earnings report that it also resumed share buybacks and plans to buy at least $100 million of its stock this year.
"This quarter we returned to pre-pandemic levels of flying and our road map to profitable growth is on track," said Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci in the Q1 earnings release.
Alaska Air stock earns the No. 5 rank among its peers in the 19-stock Transportation-Airline industry group. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are also among the group's highest-rated stocks. The airlines group itself ranks a terrific No. 13 on IBD's list of 197 industries.
When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, one factor to watch closely is relative price strength.
This exclusive Relative Strength Rating from Investor's Business Daily identifies price performance with a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score. The score shows how a stock's price behavior over the trailing 52 weeks holds up against all the other stocks in our database.
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