The Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD) share price is trading lower on Tuesday afternoon.
At the time of writing, the airport operator's shares are down 2% to $6.02.
Why is the Sydney Airport share price trading lower today?
Investors have been selling Sydney Airport's shares following the release of its latest update on passenger numbers.
According to the release, total passenger traffic in March 2021 was 1,153,000 passengers. This is down 42.6% on the prior corresponding period in 2020 and 68.4% on the corresponding period in 2019.
As you would expect, almost all of these passengers are passing through its domestic gates.
During the month, domestic passengers totalled 1,120,000. While this was down only 15.1% on March 2020's numbers, it is still down a meaningful 52% on the same period in 2019 before COVID-19 was a thing.
In respect to international travel, a total of 33,000 international passengers passed through Sydney Airport in March. This was down a massive 95.2% on the prior corresponding period and 97.5% on the corresponding period in 2019.
Once again, management has warned that the downturn in international passenger traffic is expected to persist until government travel restrictions are eased. Though, it will be given a boost from the opening of the trans-Tasman travel bubble this week.
Credit Suisse estimates that this route was responsible for 7% of total passenger traffic and 18% of international passenger traffic prior to the pandemic.
Is the Sydney Airport share price in the buy zone?
According to a note out of Credit Suisse this morning, its analysts have retained their underperform rating but lifted their price target to $5.30. This price target implies potential downside of almost 12% over the next 12 months.
However, one broker that is a lot more positive on Sydney Airport share price is Goldman Sachs.
Earlier this month the broker retained its buy rating and $6.73 price target on its shares. This implies potential upside of 12% for its shares over the next 12 months.
And rounding things off, analysts at Macquarie are sitting on the fence with their neutral rating and $6.32 price target.
