UAL vs. LUV, ALK, DAL, AAL, RYAAY, JBHT, EXPD, SAIA, XPO, and UHAL
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), Saia (SAIA), XPO (XPO), and U-Haul (UHAL). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and community ranking.
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.
Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus price target of $30.59, suggesting a potential upside of 18.84%. United Airlines has a consensus price target of $66.53, suggesting a potential upside of 32.62%. Given Southwest Airlines' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe United Airlines is more favorable than Southwest Airlines.
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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Southwest Airlines received 168 more outperform votes than United Airlines when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.11% of users gave Southwest Airlines an outperform vote while only 66.01% of users gave United Airlines an outperform vote.
United Airlines has a net margin of 4.90% compared to United Airlines' net margin of 1.59%. Southwest Airlines' return on equity of 39.85% beat United Airlines' return on equity.
In the previous week, Southwest Airlines had 82 more articles in the media than United Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 98 mentions for Southwest Airlines and 16 mentions for United Airlines. Southwest Airlines' average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat United Airlines' score of -0.08 indicating that United Airlines is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Southwest Airlines has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Airlines has a beta of 1.55, suggesting that its stock price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
United Airlines beats Southwest Airlines on 12 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.
Skip ChartThis 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.
Skip Chart
United Airlines Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools