Southwest Airlines vs United Airlines
LUV and UAL side by side, both in air transportation, scheduled, and air courier. Figures are trailing twelve months unless noted, from SEC filings and end-of-day prices.
How LUV and UAL compare
United Airlines is the larger company, worth 1.6 times as much as Southwest Airlines ($33.8B against $20.8B).
On earnings, United Airlines is cheaper: it trades at 9.8× trailing earnings, against 26.9× for Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (9.5% versus 8.5% for United Airlines).
United Airlines keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 5.6% compared with 2.8% at Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines pays a dividend yielding 1.7%; United Airlines does not pay one.
United Airlines scores higher on the StockData Score (10 against 9 for Southwest Airlines), which adds up 30 checks on valuation, growth, past performance, financial health and dividends.
Key numbers
A dot marks the better figure where higher or lower is clearly better.
| Metric | LUV | UAL |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $20.8B | $33.8B |
| Share price | $42.43 | $104.24 |
| Change, 1 year | 38.4% | 8.7% |
| Change, 5 years | −18.8% | 97.8% |
| Beta (5Y) | 1.02 | 1.43 |
| Employees | 73K | 113K |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 9 | 10 (better) |
| Valuation score | 2 | 3 (better) |
| Growth score | 1 | 1 |
| Performance score | 1 | 4 (better) |
| Health score | 3 (better) | 2 |
| Dividend score | 2 (better) | 0 |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 26.9× | 9.8× (better) |
| P/S | 0.7× | 0.5× (better) |
| P/B | 2.9× | 2.0× (better) |
| EV/EBITDA | 8.8× | 5.5× (better) |
| P/FCF | – | 13.3× |
| PEG | – | 0.15 |
| FCF yield | −2.2% | 7.5% (better) |
| Fair value | $43.40 | $135.89 |
| Margin of safety | 2.2% | 23.3% (better) |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 9.5% (better) | 8.5% |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 25.4% | 30.9% (better) |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 114% (better) | 5.6% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 143% (better) | 7.0% |
| Profitability | ||
| Operating margin | 3.5% | 7.7% (better) |
| Net margin | 2.8% | 5.6% (better) |
| FCF margin | −1.5% | 4.0% (better) |
| Return on equity | 11.1% | 23.3% (better) |
| Return on invested capital | 9.3% | 14.8% (better) |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 0.84 (better) | 1.58 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.83 (better) | 1.25 |
| Interest coverage | 5.2× (better) | 3.7× |
| Current ratio | 0.49 | 0.78 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 2.16 (better) | 1.34 |
| Piotroski F-score | 6 | 6 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | 1.7% | – |
| Payout ratio | 44.2% | – |
| Years of dividend growth | 0 | – |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | 32.0% | – |
| Buyback yield | 7.5% (better) | 0.22% |
| Shareholder yield | 9.2% (better) | 0.22% |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 92.9% | 89.7% |
| Held by insiders | 6.1% | 5.1% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$307K (better) | −$53.4M |
| Superinvestors holding | 1 | 3 (better) |
| Short interest, % of float | 5.3% | 5.4% |
Go deeper
- LUV stock overview
- LUV income statement
- LUV valuation and score
- UAL stock overview
- UAL income statement
- UAL valuation and score
Other comparisons
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.