Southwest Airlines (LUV) Competitors

$27.86
-0.12 (-0.43%)
(As of 05/17/2024 ET)

LUV vs. UAL, ALK, DAL, AAL, RYAAY, EXPD, JBHT, UHAL, ZTO, and XPO

Should you be buying Southwest Airlines stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southwest Airlines include United Airlines (UAL), Alaska Air Group (ALK), Delta Air Lines (DAL), American Airlines Group (AAL), Ryanair (RYAAY), Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), U-Haul (UHAL), ZTO Express (Cayman) (ZTO), and XPO (XPO). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.

Southwest Airlines vs.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment and risk.

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.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Southwest Airlines$26.09B0.64$465M$0.6344.22
United Airlines$53.72B0.34$2.62B$8.096.79

Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus target price of $30.10, suggesting a potential upside of 8.04%. United Airlines has a consensus target price of $67.25, suggesting a potential upside of 22.33%. Given United Airlines' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe United Airlines is more favorable than Southwest Airlines.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Southwest Airlines
4 Sell rating(s)
9 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.06
United Airlines
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
12 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.80

In the previous week, United Airlines had 18 more articles in the media than Southwest Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 44 mentions for United Airlines and 26 mentions for Southwest Airlines. United Airlines' average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat Southwest Airlines' score of 0.37 indicating that United Airlines is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Southwest Airlines
6 Very Positive mention(s)
6 Positive mention(s)
7 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
United Airlines
22 Very Positive mention(s)
5 Positive mention(s)
8 Neutral mention(s)
6 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Southwest Airlines has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Airlines has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500.

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.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
Southwest AirlinesOutperform Votes
1135
70.02%
Underperform Votes
486
29.98%
United AirlinesOutperform Votes
969
66.05%
Underperform Votes
498
33.95%

80.8% of Southwest Airlines shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of United Airlines shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Southwest Airlines shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of United Airlines shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

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.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Southwest Airlines1.59% 8.91% 2.60%
United Airlines 4.90%39.85%4.83%

Summary

United Airlines beats Southwest Airlines on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding LUV and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE 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.
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LUV vs. The Competition

MetricSouthwest AirlinesAir transportation, scheduled IndustryTransportation SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$16.67B$19.89B$10.44B$18.14B
Dividend Yield2.58%2.76%3.58%3.44%
P/E Ratio44.228.0820.0122.22
Price / Sales0.641.6523.2610.59
Price / Cash6.6232.2216.0319.24
Price / Book1.631.932.236.00
Net Income$465M$658.30M$668.17M$966.17M
7 Day Performance1.83%-0.05%1.84%1.85%
1 Month Performance-5.17%-0.22%7.69%6.59%
1 Year Performance-5.50%-1.14%16.82%23.69%

Southwest Airlines Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
UAL
United Airlines
4.8426 of 5 stars
$55.09
+1.3%
$66.70
+21.1%
+14.2%$18.11B$53.72B6.8110,300Analyst Upgrade
News Coverage
ALK
Alaska Air Group
4.8541 of 5 stars
$43.78
-0.2%
$56.75
+29.6%
-4.1%$5.56B$10.43B23.4126,043Analyst Upgrade
Short Interest ↑
Analyst Revision
DAL
Delta Air Lines
4.9336 of 5 stars
$53.07
+0.1%
$59.25
+11.7%
+46.8%$33.96B$58.05B6.82100,000
AAL
American Airlines Group
3.409 of 5 stars
$15.19
+1.7%
$17.62
+16.0%
-2.1%$9.97B$52.79B25.32132,100Analyst Revision
RYAAY
Ryanair
4.6689 of 5 stars
$128.60
+0.0%
$158.50
+23.3%
+23.0%$29.32B$13.12B13.2422,261Positive News
EXPD
Expeditors International of Washington
3.6025 of 5 stars
$117.50
-0.1%
$111.63
-5.0%
+2.8%$16.60B$9.30B24.8918,000Analyst Upgrade
JBHT
J.B. Hunt Transport Services
4.959 of 5 stars
$168.16
-0.7%
$194.24
+15.5%
-3.5%$17.35B$12.83B26.698,756Short Interest ↓
UHAL
U-Haul
0.3188 of 5 stars
$69.11
+0.9%
N/A+9.0%$13.55B$5.86B21.2635,100
ZTO
ZTO Express (Cayman)
4.0475 of 5 stars
$21.55
-1.0%
$30.00
+39.2%
-15.3%$13.08B$38.42B14.5623,554News Coverage
Positive News
XPO
XPO
4.3205 of 5 stars
$112.24
+2.5%
$114.95
+2.4%
+130.5%$13.06B$7.74B55.0238,000Insider Selling

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This page (NYSE:LUV) was last updated on 5/19/2024 by MarketBeat.com Staff

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