Investing.com -- United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) jumped nearly 5% in premarket trading Wednesday after reiterating its earnings outlook despite suffering a $200 million hit from the temporary grounding of Boeing's (NYSE:BA) 737 Max 9 jets owing to regulatory concerns about safety.
United, the airline with the largest amount of 737 Max 9's in its fleet, kept its forecast for full-year adjusted earnings between $9 and $11 a share this year. For Q2, the company forecasts adjusted EPS of $3.75 to $4.25, in-line with analyst estimates for $3.76 a share.
For the quarter ended Mar.31, United reported adjusted loss of $0.38 per share on revenue of $12.54 billion. That topped estimates from analysts polled by Investing.com for an adjusted loss of $0.57 per share on revenue of $12.46B.
“The results overall look very encouraging, with revenue and earnings above Citi, FCF for the quarter reaching $1.5B and continued, solid 2024 guidance,” Citi analysts said in a note.
“Overall, these results and guide could bring at least some relief to what we would characterize as the oversold situation in United’s shares.”
The analysts reiterated a Buy rating on UAL stock and kept it on their Focus List.
The company flagged a $200 million from the grounding of the Boeing 737 9 jets after a mid-air cabin panel blowout on a model of the jet operated by Alaska Airlines earlier this year. Without the $200M hit, the company would have reported a quarterly profit, United Airlines said.
Total revenue per available seat mile, a key performance metric, was up 0.6% in Q1 compared to first-quarter 2023, indicating the airline is making more revenue from each set on its airlines.
(Yasin Ebrahim contributed reporting)