Reviewing Saker Aviation Services (OTCMKTS:SKAS) & Copa (NYSE:CPA)

Copa (NYSE:CPA) and Saker Aviation Services (OTCMKTS:SKAS) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Copa and Saker Aviation Services, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Copa	0	0	7	1	3.13
Saker Aviation Services	0	0	0	0	0.00

Copa presently has a consensus target price of $157.67, suggesting a potential upside of 26.20%. Given Copa’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Copa is more favorable than Saker Aviation Services.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Copa and Saker Aviation Services”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Copa	$3.48 billion	1.48	$608.11 million	$15.38	8.12
Saker Aviation Services	$9.17 million	0.74	$1.25 million	($0.42)	-16.19

Copa has higher revenue and earnings than Saker Aviation Services. Saker Aviation Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Copa, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Copa and Saker Aviation Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Copa	18.36%	26.22%	11.09%
Saker Aviation Services	6.08%	3.44%	3.15%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.1% of Copa shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.3% of Saker Aviation Services shares are held by institutional investors. 34.6% of Saker Aviation Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Copa pays an annual dividend of $6.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Saker Aviation Services pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Copa pays out 41.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Saker Aviation Services pays out -119.0% 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. Copa has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Saker Aviation Services is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Copa has a beta of 1.3, meaning that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Saker Aviation Services has a beta of 0.24, meaning that its stock price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Copa beats Saker Aviation Services on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Saker Aviation Services

Saker Aviation Services, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates in the aviation services segment of the general aviation industry in the United States. It serves as the operator of a Downtown Manhattan (New York) Heliport. The company was formerly known as FirstFlight, Inc. and changed its name to Saker Aviation Services, Inc. in September 2009. Saker Aviation Services, Inc. is headquartered in New York, New York.