Southwest Airlines (LUV) Competitors

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) 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 analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking and profitability.

Which has more volatility and risk, DAL or LUV?

Delta Air Lines has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Airlines has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend DAL or LUV?

Delta Air Lines presently has a consensus price target of $71.49, indicating a potential upside of 92.52%. Southwest Airlines has a consensus price target of $32.43, indicating a potential upside of 25.75%. Given Delta Air Lines' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Delta Air Lines is more favorable than Southwest Airlines.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Delta Air Lines	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Southwest Airlines	6 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.89

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer DAL or LUV?

Delta Air Lines received 117 more outperform votes than Southwest Airlines when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 76.61% of users gave Delta Air Lines an outperform vote while only 68.65% of users gave Southwest Airlines an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Delta Air Lines	Outperform Votes 1258 76.61%	Underperform Votes 384 23.39%
Southwest Airlines	Outperform Votes 1141 68.65%	Underperform Votes 521 31.35%

Which has higher valuation & earnings, DAL or LUV?

Delta Air Lines has higher revenue and earnings than Southwest Airlines. Delta Air Lines is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Airlines, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Delta Air Lines	$61.64B	0.39	$3.46B	$5.33	6.97
Southwest Airlines	$27.48B	0.56	$465M	$0.72	35.82

Does the media prefer DAL or LUV?

In the previous week, Delta Air Lines had 20 more articles in the media than Southwest Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 70 mentions for Delta Air Lines and 50 mentions for Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines' average media sentiment score of 0.58 beat Delta Air Lines' score of 0.54 indicating that Southwest Airlines is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Delta Air Lines	31 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	15 Neutral mention(s)	10 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southwest Airlines	20 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	9 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is DAL or LUV more profitable?

Delta Air Lines has a net margin of 5.61% compared to Southwest Airlines' net margin of 1.69%. Delta Air Lines' return on equity of 30.41% beat Southwest Airlines' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Delta Air Lines	5.61%	30.41%	5.30%
Southwest Airlines	1.69%	5.77%	1.70%

Is DAL or LUV a better dividend stock?

Delta Air Lines pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Southwest Airlines pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Delta Air Lines pays out 11.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southwest Airlines pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in DAL or LUV?

69.9% of Delta Air Lines shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Southwest Airlines shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Delta Air Lines shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Southwest Airlines shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Delta Air Lines beats Southwest Airlines on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.