Rising Stock Price (NYSE: ALK)
(Compiled from the 2nd virtual roadshow transcript and lightly edited.)
Q Our stocks are up way up today (April 12, 2021) at 71. What would you say that has on the influence of how we are doing?
A
I think that it’s an encouraging sign for Alaska in particular. I do think that at least with the last scan–I haven’t been following the other aviation stocks–but I think our stock is probably a little over inflated at the moment based on recovery. It is encouraging, but the recovery is far from certain.
MEC President Jeff Peterson
Yeah, I think … that’s a good point, Jeff. The recovery is far from certain, and if you look at where we are with a 71-ish dollar value stock, it’s the highest it’s been since about 2017 October. But if you look at carriers that are positioned in the box that I talked about earlier, which is no wide body international mostly domestic discretionary traffic, those carriers including Alaska, Southwest, somewhat jetBlue, Spirit, Allegiant (and) Frontier. Those stocks are all kind of in that same bucket. They’re close to all-time highs–at least all-time highs in the last three or four years–and it’s all because those are the places of the industry analysts expect the recovery to be to be happening fastest. It’s a reflection of not what’s actually occurring but relative to other airline stocks.
What’s likely to occur at Alaska and other primarily narrow body domestic focus carriers are looking at…a faster recovery than United, American and Delta, which if you look at their stocks are still about halfway back to where they were this time or a little bit earlier last year. So, I think it’s a reflection of what the market expects to happen in the future not so much what’s happening now.
Aviation Economist Dan Akins – FlightPath Economics, LLC
