Copa (CPA) & Its Peers Financial Analysis

Copa (NYSE:CPA) is one of 37 publicly-traded companies in the “TRANS – AIRLINE” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Copa to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Copa and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Copa	$3.62 billion	$671.65 million	7.71
Copa Competitors	$14.12 billion	$673.59 million	6.85

Copa’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Copa. Copa is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.1% of Copa shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.5% of shares of all “TRANS – AIRLINE” companies are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of shares of all “TRANS – AIRLINE” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Copa and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Copa	0	1	10	1	3.00
Copa Competitors	667	2301	3438	242	2.49

Copa presently has a consensus price target of $165.00, suggesting a potential upside of 31.51%. As a group, “TRANS – AIRLINE” companies have a potential upside of 17.72%. Given Copa’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Copa is more favorable than its peers.

Dividends

Copa pays an annual dividend of $6.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. Copa pays out 42.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “TRANS – AIRLINE” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.6% and pay out 27.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Copa has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Copa and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Copa	18.57%	25.62%	10.92%
Copa Competitors	5.01%	17.98%	4.18%

Volatility & Risk

Copa has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Copa’s peers have a beta of 11.31, suggesting that their average stock price is 1,031% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Copa beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

About Copa

Copa Holdings, S.A., through its subsidiaries, provides airline passenger and cargo services. The company offers approximately 375 daily scheduled flights to 82 destinations in 32 countries in North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean from its Panama City hub. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 106 aircraft comprising 76 Boeing 737-Next Generation aircraft, 29 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, and one Boeing 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter. The company was founded in 1947 and is based in Panama City, Panama.