In the latest market close, Alaska Air Group (ALK) reached $50.75, with a -0.29% movement compared to the previous day. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.58% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.51%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.81%.

Coming into today, shares of the airline had gained 4.62% in the past month. In that same time, the Transportation sector gained 4.26%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.61%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Alaska Air Group in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $1.57, showcasing a 38.43% downward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $3.66 billion, indicating a 26.26% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $3.65 per share and a revenue of $14.21 billion, indicating changes of -25.05% and +21.09%, respectively, from the former year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Alaska Air Group. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 7.47% lower. Alaska Air Group is currently a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Looking at its valuation, Alaska Air Group is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 13.94. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 9.24.

Investors should also note that ALK has a PEG ratio of 0.52 right now. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The Transportation - Airline industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.9 as trading concluded yesterday.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 160, positioning it in the bottom 35% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.

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Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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