Financial Comparison: Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) & JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU)

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.7% of JetBlue Airways shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.9% of Delta Air Lines shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.4% of JetBlue Airways shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Delta Air Lines shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

JetBlue Airways has a beta of 1.77, suggesting that its share price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Delta Air Lines has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JetBlue Airways	N/A	N/A	N/A
Delta Air Lines	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JetBlue Airways	4	9	0	0	1.69
Delta Air Lines	1	1	22	0	2.88

JetBlue Airways presently has a consensus target price of $4.98, indicating a potential upside of 74.95%. Delta Air Lines has a consensus target price of $99.65, indicating a potential upside of 23.14%. Given JetBlue Airways’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe JetBlue Airways is more favorable than Delta Air Lines.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JetBlue Airways	$9.50 billion	0.11	-$1.01 billion	($2.68)	-1.06
Delta Air Lines	$71.80 billion	0.74	$3.30 billion	$5.01	16.15

Delta Air Lines has higher revenue and earnings than JetBlue Airways. JetBlue Airways is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Delta Air Lines, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Delta Air Lines beats JetBlue Airways on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways Corporation provides air transportation services. The company operates a fleet of Airbus A321, Airbus A220, Airbus A321neo, Airbus A320 Restyled, Airbus A320, Airbus A321 with Mint, Airbus A321neo with Mint, Airbus A321neoLR with Mint, and Embraer E190 aircraft. It also serves 100 destinations across the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, Canada, and Europe. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is based in Long Island City, New York.

About Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines, Inc. provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Sao Paulo, Seoul-Incheon, and Tokyo. The company sells its tickets through various distribution channels, including delta.com and the Fly Delta app; acts as a reservations specialists; and operates online travel and traditional brick and mortar agencies. It also provides aircraft maintenance and engineering support, repair, and overhaul services; and vacation packages to third-party consumers. The company operates through a fleet of approximately 1,273 aircrafts. Delta Air Lines, Inc. was founded in 1924 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.