The share price of the German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DE:LHA) gained over 7% today on upbeat Q3 results. The company reported higher quarterly profits, driven by strong demand for summer travel along with leisure travel within its premium travel segment. In Q3, the airline reported €1.47 billion in adjusted EBIT, a 31% YoY increase, slightly surpassing analysts’ consensus of €1.43 billion.
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These numbers came as a pleasant surprise for investors, given that European airline stocks were hit by rising oil prices due to Middle East tensions. The Deutsche Lufthansa share price has been trading up by 7.02% today at the time of writing. In the last month, the stock has lost almost 6% in trading.
Deutsche Lufthansa is a leading European airline and serves as the flagship carrier of Germany with a global operational reach.
Q3 2023 Numbers
The total revenues grew by 8% to €10.2 billion in Q3, as compared to €9.5 billion in Q3 2022. For the nine-month period ending in September 2023, the company saw a huge growth of 143% in EBIT of €2.3 billion as compared to a year ago. The passenger capacity in nine months increased by 17% on a year-over-year basis. The airline served around 38 million passengers in the third quarter, up from 33 million in the same quarter last year.
For the full year, Lufthansa is confident about the ongoing travel recovery and strong bookings as the Christmas holiday season approaches. Currently, the bookings for the fourth quarter are displaying double-digit percentage growth compared to the previous year. The group anticipates that the adjusted EBIT will reach a minimum of €2.6 billion.
Is Lufthansa a Buy or Sell?
LHA stock has received a Moderate Buy rating on TipRanks, with a total of 11 recommendations, of which five are Buys. Analysts are predicting a growth of 50%, at an average price forecast of €10.62.
It’s important to highlight that these ratings are subject to potential changes following the third-quarter performance.
