American Airlines Q4 Profit Down, But Tops Estimates; Shares Up In Pre-market

(RTTNews) - American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) Thursday reported lower profit in the fourth quarter primarily due to higher operating expenses on relatively flat revenues. However, the airliner's profit as well as revenue beat the Street view.

Profit for the fourth quarter declined to $19 million or $0.03 per share from $803 million or $1.14 per share in the same quarter a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings were $192 million or $0.29 per share, that beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters of $0.10 per share. Analysts' estimate typically exclude special items. Revenue for the quarter was slightly down at $13.062 billion from $13.189 billion last year. The consensus estimate stood at $13.02 billion.

American Airlines said its passenger load factor was 83.6% for the fourth quarter compared with 83.9% last year.

Looking forward, the company expects to report adjusted loss per share in the range of $0.15-$0.35 for the first quarter. Analysts expect a loss of $0.16 per share for the quarter.

For the full year, adjusted EPS is expected between $2.25 and $3.25. The consensus estimate stands at $2.25 per share.

American Airlines stock is up more than 4% in pre-market trading. It had closed at $13.93, down 0.50% on Wednesday. The stock has been trading in the range of 10.86 - 19.08 in the last 1 year.