American Airlines Shares Soar After Weaker Than Expected Losses, Sales and Loads

Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. AAL,
+ 6.63%
Thursday, after the airline reported a narrower-than-expected fourth quarter loss, revenue and load factor that beat expectations. The company grew to a net loss of $ 2.18 billion, or $ 3.81 per share, on net income of $ 414 million, or 95 cents per share, in the prior year period . Excluding non-recurring items, the adjusted loss per share was $ 3.86, beating the FactSet loss consensus of $ 4.11. Revenue fell 64% to $ 4.03 billion, but beat the FactSet consensus by $ 3.88 billion. Load factor fell to 63.4% from 84.7%, above the FactSet consensus of 62.9%, as traffic declined 66.7% while capacity fell 55.4%. The daily cash consumption rate in the quarter was $ 30 million, up from nearly $ 100 million in April. The company expects to end the first quarter with $ 15.0 billion in total available cash. “As we look to the year ahead, 2021 will be a year of recovery,” said CEO Doug Parker. “While we don’t know exactly when passenger demand will return, as vaccine distribution takes place and travel restrictions are lifted, we will be ready. The stock is up 51.2% in the past three months through Wednesday, while the US Global Jets ETF JETS,
-1.66%
climbed 29.5% and the S&P 500 SPX,
-2.57%
gained 14.7%.