LUV vs. DAL, UAL, ALK, CPA, SKYW, JBLU, ALGT, HA, RYAAY, and AAL
Should you be buying Southwest Airlines stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southwest Airlines include Delta Air Lines (DAL), United Airlines (UAL), Alaska Air Group (ALK), Copa (CPA), SkyWest (SKYW), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), Allegiant Travel (ALGT), Hawaiian (HA), Ryanair (RYAAY), and American Airlines Group (AAL). These companies are all part of the "air transportation, scheduled" industry.
Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) 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, institutional ownership, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, risk and earnings.
In the previous week, Delta Air Lines had 2 more articles in the media than Southwest Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Delta Air Lines and 10 mentions for Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines' average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat Delta Air Lines' score of 0.88 indicating that Delta Air Lines is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Delta Air Lines pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Southwest Airlines pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Delta Air Lines pays out 5.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southwest Airlines pays out 114.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
69.9% of Delta Air Lines shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Southwest Airlines shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Delta Air Lines shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Southwest Airlines shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Delta Air Lines received 95 more outperform votes than Southwest Airlines when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 76.40% of users gave Delta Air Lines an outperform vote while only 69.98% of users gave Southwest Airlines an outperform vote.
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.
Delta Air Lines has a net margin of 8.48% compared to Delta Air Lines' net margin of 1.59%. Southwest Airlines' return on equity of 41.89% beat Delta Air Lines' return on equity.
Delta Air Lines has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Airlines has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Delta Air Lines presently has a consensus price target of $59.85, indicating a potential upside of 18.64%. Southwest Airlines has a consensus price target of $30.10, indicating a potential upside of 8.43%. Given Southwest Airlines' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Delta Air Lines is more favorable than Southwest Airlines.
Summary
Delta Air Lines beats Southwest Airlines on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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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