UAL vs. LUV, ALK, DAL, AAL, RYAAY, JBHT, EXPD, UHAL, ZTO, and XPO
Should you be buying United Airlines stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of United Airlines include Southwest Airlines (LUV), Alaska Air Group (ALK), Delta Air Lines (DAL), American Airlines Group (AAL), Ryanair (RYAAY), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD), U-Haul (UHAL), ZTO Express (Cayman) (ZTO), and XPO (XPO). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.
United Airlines has higher revenue and earnings than Southwest Airlines. United Airlines is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Airlines, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
United Airlines has a net margin of 4.90% compared to Southwest Airlines' net margin of 1.59%. United Airlines' return on equity of 39.85% beat Southwest Airlines' return on equity.
Southwest Airlines received 166 more outperform votes than United Airlines when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.02% of users gave Southwest Airlines an outperform vote while only 66.05% of users gave United Airlines an outperform vote.
In the previous week, United Airlines had 19 more articles in the media than Southwest Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 43 mentions for United Airlines and 24 mentions for Southwest Airlines. United Airlines' average media sentiment score of 0.90 beat Southwest Airlines' score of 0.37 indicating that United Airlines is being referred to more favorably in the media.
United Airlines currently has a consensus target price of $67.25, indicating a potential upside of 22.33%. Southwest Airlines has a consensus target price of $30.10, indicating a potential upside of 8.04%. Given United Airlines' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe United Airlines is more favorable than Southwest Airlines.
69.7% of United Airlines shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Southwest Airlines shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of United Airlines shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Southwest Airlines shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
United Airlines has a beta of 1.49, suggesting that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Airlines has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
United Airlines beats Southwest Airlines on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get United Airlines News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for UAL and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UAL and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
United Airlines Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
