Do Investors Have Much Faith In Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK)

Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE:ALK) does about 2.48M shares in volume on a normal day but saw 1788741 shares change hands in the recent trading day. The company now has a market cap of 5.67B USD. Its current market price is $44.94, marking a decrease of -1.56% compared to the previous close of $45.65. The 52 week high reached by this stock is $46.87 whilst the lowest price level in 52 weeks is $30.75. The script in recent trading has seen the stock touch a high of $135 and a low of $45.

Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) has a 20-day trading average at $43.88 and the current price is -4.11% off the 52-week high compared with 46.15% distance from its 52-week low. The 50-day simple moving average of the closing price is $39.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.63. If we look at the stock’s price movements over the week, volatility stands at 2.40%, which increases to 2.87% over 1 month. It is also key to look at other market indicators of price movement for the stock, where we see that the relative strength index (RSI) is at 62.48 to suggest the stock is neutral.

10 analysts observing the Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) stock have set the 12-month price targets for the company’s shares at between $45 and $135. The consensus objective for the share price is $53.82, suggesting that the stock has a potential upside of 16.5% over the period. The median price target is 27.52% away from the current levels at $62.

FactSet Research has provided data showing that 10 brokerages have issued ratings for the stock. 0 analysts have rated it as a sell, while 0 advise that it is a overweight. 9 analysts have rated it as a buy and 1 have advised that investors hold their positions. The consensus recommendation rating is Buy and Wall Street’s advice is for investors to Strong Buy the stock.

The company shares received a number of brokerage firm price updates over the past month, with the latest being on July 24, 2024 when TD Cowen reiterated the stock to “Buy” and issued a price target of between $58 and $51. Wolfe Research upgraded the stock to “Outperform” from Peer Perform on May 17, 2024 at a price target of $55. TD Cowen reiterated its price target at $49-$58.

The current price level is 2.42%, 12.87%, and 13.40% away from its SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200 respectively, with the ALK price moving above the 50-day SMA on current market day. Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) stock is up 0.69% over the week and 13.60% over the past month. Its price is 15.02% year-to-date and 37.60% over the past year.

The stock last released its quarterly earnings report for quarter ended 6/30/2024, with the company’s earnings per share (EPS) of 1.83 below consensus estimates by -0.03. The company’s next earnings report forecasts estimating quarterly EPS at 2.07 and 4.33 for whole year. Expected sales for next quarter are $2.91B, which analysts say will come at $11.15B for the current fiscal year and next year at $12.48B. In addition, estimates put the company’s current quarterly revenue at an average of $2.97B.

Its 12-month price target is $62. To reach the target analysts have set, the stock logically needs to grow 16.5 percent from here. Of course, the average price target is just what the average analysts believe a stock will be worth in the next 52 weeks, and is only one metric. There are analysts with lower targets than the average, including one bearish Wall Street research firm advocating investors to wait for the price to pull back to $45, given the recent momentum. And then, on the bullish side of things, one analyst is expecting the stock to peak at $135.

Outstanding shares total 126.09M with insiders holding 0.46% of the shares and institutional holders owning 90.23% of the company’s common stock. The company has a return on investment of 2.96% and return on equity of 5.50%. The price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) amounts to 26.02 while the forward price to earnings ratio is 8.29. The beta has a value of 1.61. Price to book ratio is 1.34 and price to sales ratio is 0.54.