UAL vs. LUV, DAL, ALK, CPA, AAL, RYAAY, EXPD, CHRW, UHAL, and WAB
Should you be buying United Airlines stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of United Airlines include Southwest Airlines (LUV), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Alaska Air Group (ALK), Copa (CPA), American Airlines Group (AAL), Ryanair (RYAAY), Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD), C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), U-Haul (UHAL), and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
United Airlines vs.
United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, profitability, community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.
In the previous week, Southwest Airlines had 10 more articles in the media than United Airlines. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Southwest Airlines and 10 mentions for United Airlines. United Airlines' average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Southwest Airlines' score of 0.90 indicating that United Airlines is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Southwest Airlines has a net margin of 2.26% compared to United Airlines' net margin of 1.64%. United Airlines' return on equity of 17.15% beat Southwest Airlines' return on equity.
United Airlines presently has a consensus target price of $56.31, suggesting a potential upside of 32.76%. Southwest Airlines has a consensus target price of $47.07, suggesting a potential upside of 53.68%. Given Southwest Airlines' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Southwest Airlines is more favorable than United Airlines.
United Airlines has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Airlines has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.
59.7% of United Airlines shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.7% of Southwest Airlines shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of United Airlines shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Southwest Airlines shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Southwest Airlines received 180 more outperform votes than United Airlines when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.97% of users gave Southwest Airlines an outperform vote while only 66.81% of users gave United Airlines an outperform vote.
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.
Summary
Southwest Airlines beats United Airlines on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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 ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This 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.
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United Airlines Competitors List