Critical Comparison: SkyWest (SKYW) & The Competition

SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) is one of 78 public companies in the “Passenger Airlines” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare SkyWest to related businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Volatility & Risk

SkyWest has a beta of 1.61, meaning that its stock price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SkyWest’s competitors have a beta of 18.44, meaning that their average stock price is 1,744% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

81.3% of SkyWest shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.0% of shares of all “Passenger Airlines” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of SkyWest shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.5% of shares of all “Passenger Airlines” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SkyWest and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
SkyWest	$4.06 billion	$428.33 million	7.68
SkyWest Competitors	$14.72 billion	$637.69 million	18.88

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

Profitability

This table compares SkyWest and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SkyWest	9.70%	14.52%	5.41%
SkyWest Competitors	-8.86%	5.50%	1.21%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for SkyWest and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SkyWest	1	3	2	0	2.17
SkyWest Competitors	1526	4063	6683	354	2.46

SkyWest currently has a consensus price target of $111.40, indicating a potential upside of 40.34%. As a group, “Passenger Airlines” companies have a potential upside of 8.52%. Given SkyWest’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe SkyWest is more favorable than its competitors.

Summary

SkyWest competitors beat SkyWest on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

SkyWest Company Profile

SkyWest, Inc. is the holding company for two scheduled passenger airline operations and an aircraft leasing company. SkyWest’s airline companies provide commercial air service in cities throughout North America with nearly 3,000 daily flights carrying more than 53 million passengers annually. SkyWest Airlines operates through partnerships with United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. ExpressJet Airlines operates through partnerships with United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Based in St. George, Utah, SkyWest employs nearly 17,000 employees.