IAG was up 5% this morning, however, gains have eroded throughout the day,

British Airways owner IAG raised profit guidance this morning as it sees roughly a 97% capacity on pre-pandemic levels. Revenue for Q1 2023 was £5.2bn with a net profit of £7.9m. This is way above analyst expectations of a loss of £157.4m. While the net profit margin is small, the outlook is now positive for 2023, and therefore this morning the stock jumped to attempt to reflect the increase in revenue and the turn back to profitability. Throughout the remainder of the year, IAG is expecting at least a £1.6bn net profit for 2023 which would be a great improvement and relief for shareholders across the world.

Looking at the chart, IAG support dates back to October 2022. A bounce at the start of the year of almost 38% saw IAG touch £1.72 but the airline conglomerate was met with resistance in early February and since then shares dropped and have remainder rangebound between £1.42 and £1.55 in April. Given the positive numbers from the company, there is no reason to see possible further upside breaking out of the April range, however, underlying issues must be overcome as IAG is in a headlock with Heathrow and pay disputes. If delays throughout the summer period are bad, then Q3 & Q4 could see poor numbers. Support for IAG sits really comfortably at £1.43 with a break below here targeting £1.33. If IAG can break out of its monthly range high at £1.55 shares could move swiftly higher towards £1.73. Currently tipranks.com see a 12-month price estimate at £1.92 with 13 ratings, 7 are 'buy' and 6 are 'hold', with 0 'sell' ratings.