United Airlines Holdings, Inc ( UAL ). shares are trading lower on Thursday following American Airlines Group, Inc.’s latest earnings report, which issued weak guidance for the 2025 first-quarter and fiscal-year.

The Details: American projects a loss between 40 and 20 cents per share for the first-quarter, versus analysts estimate of a loss of 4 cents per share. For the 2025 fiscal-year, the company forecasts adjusted earnings per share between $1.70 and $2.70, versus analysts estimate of $2.42.

The company said its guidance is based upon current demand trends and anticipated jet fuel costs. Additionally, American expects total revenue to grow by approximately 3% to 5% year-over-year in the first-quarter and by 4.5% to 7.5% for the 2025 fiscal-year.

United shares may be moving lower following weak guidance from American, as both companies operate in the same industry and could face similar headwinds, such as increased jet fuel costs.

How To Buy United Airlines Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for United Airlines – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy ‘fractional shares,' which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. For example, some stock, like Berkshire Hathaway, or Amazon.com, can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, brokerages will allow you to do so.

In the the case of United Airlines, which is trading at $105.06 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 0.95 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to ‘go short' a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

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UAL Price Action: At the time of writing, United shares are trading 2.05% lower at $105.70, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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