American Airlines Analyst: Stock Worth $82, Not $92

In a report published Monday, Imperial Capital analysts maintained an Outperform rating on

, while reducing the price target from $92 to $82, after the company reported its 1Q15 results. American Airlines reported record operating results, with the highest pre-tax margin among legacy carriers. Management's commentary continued to provide confidence in the company's ability to build on last year's robust results. The EPS estimate for 2015 has been reduced from $12.36 to $11.01 to reflect higher fuel costs and some additional currency headwind. Despite the downward revision, the analysts expect the company to generate record 2015 pre-tax margins, surpassing peers "by a several hundred basis points." "In addition, American's no fuel hedging policy is expected to result in $4.35bn in annualized cost savings, the highest of any U.S. airline. We believe the company should pass a substantial portion of these cost savings on to investors in the way of additional share repurchases and the retirement of high interest debt," the analysts commented.