Can IAG shares continue their rapid journey north?
With its shares having recovered to prices not seen since 2021, independent analyst Alistair Strang assesses the odds of the British Airways owner revisiting pre-pandemic highs.
11th April 2024 10:39
by Alistair Strang from Trends and Targets
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We're stalking a few bounce-back stocks currently, shares where the price should logically improve as the grim days of Lockdown recede to a distant memory. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) (British Airways) is one such share, the price cheerfully at 440p before the pandemic kicked industry in the teeth.
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The share price is starting to show early signs of coming awake, which makes us wonder if it's going to be one of the prices which proves capable of making some sort of attempt at pre-pandemic levels.
To be fair, we'd anticipated the Travel and Holiday sectors to move rather faster than has been shown, even Food and Clothing proving earlier on the steps for recovery. However, with jet engine maker Rolls Royce soaring substantially higher than their pre-pandemic price level of 240p, and currently just over four quid, we're inclined to attach some hope for the airline sector playing catch-up at some point, perhaps fairly soon.
IAG's share price is now trading higher than any level since 2021 and has also broken through the solid Blue downtrend since 2021, in addition to breaking above a less certain downtrend since 2020.
Visually, it certainly seems we may have a point, though some patience may be required due to British Airways' inherent lack of speed when gaining altitude.
Near term, we're inclined to view 185p as the next major trigger level, due to movement above such a point calculating with the potential of a lift to an initial 215p with our secondary, if bettered, a rather more cheerful 284p.
For the long term, we shall take closure above 284p as showing a degree of commitment, perhaps a solid first step on a path to challenge against the share price highs pre-pandemic.
As usual, we can hope. To justify panic, below 158p will justify deployment of emergency exit ramps.
Source: Trends and Targets. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Alistair Strang has led high-profile and "top secret" software projects since the late 1970s and won the original John Logie Baird Award for inventors and innovators. After the financial crash, he wanted to know "how it worked" with a view to mimicking existing trading formulas and predicting what was coming next. His results speak for themselves as he continually refines the methodology.
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