SkyWest (SKYW) Competitors

Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) and SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) are both mid-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Which has more volatility and risk, ALK or SKYW?

Alaska Air Group has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SkyWest has a beta of 1.88, suggesting that its share price is 88% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate ALK or SKYW?

Alaska Air Group presently has a consensus price target of $66.83, indicating a potential upside of 31.04%. SkyWest has a consensus price target of $120.67, indicating a potential upside of 21.10%. Given Alaska Air Group's higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Alaska Air Group is more favorable than SkyWest.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alaska Air Group	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.92
SkyWest	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is ALK or SKYW a better dividend stock?

Alaska Air Group pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. SkyWest pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Alaska Air Group pays out 54.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SkyWest pays out 6.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of ALK or SKYW?

81.9% of Alaska Air Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.3% of SkyWest shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Alaska Air Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of SkyWest shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to ALK or SKYW?

In the previous week, Alaska Air Group had 7 more articles in the media than SkyWest. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Alaska Air Group and 11 mentions for SkyWest. Alaska Air Group's average media sentiment score of 0.99 beat SkyWest's score of 0.86 indicating that Alaska Air Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alaska Air Group	14 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SkyWest	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, ALK or SKYW?

Alaska Air Group has higher revenue and earnings than SkyWest. SkyWest is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alaska Air Group, 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
Alaska Air Group	$12.64B	0.50	$395M	$2.75	18.55
SkyWest	$3.67B	1.10	$322.96M	$8.74	11.40

Is ALK or SKYW more profitable?

SkyWest has a net margin of 9.15% compared to Alaska Air Group's net margin of 3.37%. Alaska Air Group's return on equity of 14.66% beat SkyWest's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alaska Air Group	3.37%	14.66%	3.60%
SkyWest	9.15%	14.17%	4.61%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ALK or SKYW?

Alaska Air Group received 392 more outperform votes than SkyWest when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.21% of users gave Alaska Air Group an outperform vote while only 68.30% of users gave SkyWest an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Alaska Air Group	Outperform Votes 851 70.21%	Underperform Votes 361 29.79%
SkyWest	Outperform Votes 459 68.30%	Underperform Votes 213 31.70%

Summary

Alaska Air Group beats SkyWest on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.