Has United Continental Holdings (UAL) Outpaced Other Transportation Stocks This Year?

Alaska Air's (ALK) load factor falls in November due to capacity expansion outpacing traffic growth. Simultaneously, the carrier adjusts its guidance for Q4 unit revenues.

Investors interested in Transportation stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has United Continental Holdings (UAL) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

United Continental Holdings is a member of the Transportation sector. This group includes 151 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #4. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. UAL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for UAL's full-year earnings has moved 5.55% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that UAL has returned about 32.98% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Transportation sector has returned an average of -9.17% on a year-to-date basis. This means that United Continental Holdings is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, UAL belongs to the Transportation - Airline industry, which includes 28 individual stocks and currently sits at #37 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 15.72% this year, meaning that UAL is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Transportation stocks should continue to pay close attention to UAL as it looks to continue its solid performance.

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