DAL vs. UAL, LUV, RYAAY, AAL, WAB, ODFL, JBHT, EXPD, ZTO, and NSC
Should you be buying Delta Air Lines stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Delta Air Lines include United Airlines (UAL), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Ryanair (RYAAY), American Airlines Group (AAL), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD), ZTO Express (Cayman) (ZTO), and Norfolk Southern (NSC). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and community ranking.
Delta Air Lines has higher revenue and earnings than United Airlines. United Airlines is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Delta Air Lines, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
United Airlines has a beta of 1.55, suggesting that its stock price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Delta Air Lines has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Delta Air Lines received 261 more outperform votes than United Airlines when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 76.37% of users gave Delta Air Lines an outperform vote while only 66.01% of users gave United Airlines an outperform vote.
69.7% of United Airlines shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.9% of Delta Air Lines shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of United Airlines shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Delta Air Lines shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
United Airlines currently has a consensus price target of $66.53, suggesting a potential upside of 31.31%. Delta Air Lines has a consensus price target of $58.29, suggesting a potential upside of 16.52%. Given Delta Air Lines' higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe United Airlines is more favorable than Delta Air Lines.
In the previous week, Delta Air Lines had 19 more articles in the media than United Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 38 mentions for Delta Air Lines and 19 mentions for United Airlines. Delta Air Lines' average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat United Airlines' score of 0.54 indicating that United Airlines is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Delta Air Lines has a net margin of 8.48% compared to Delta Air Lines' net margin of 4.90%. United Airlines' return on equity of 41.89% beat Delta Air Lines' return on equity.
Summary
Delta Air Lines beats United Airlines on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding DAL 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 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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