Spirit Airlines (SAVE) and Its Peers Head to Head Review

Spirit Airlines (NASDAQ:SAVE – Get Rating) is one of 36 public companies in the “Air transportation, scheduled” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Spirit Airlines to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.7% of Spirit Airlines shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.4% of shares of all “Air transportation, scheduled” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Spirit Airlines shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of shares of all “Air transportation, scheduled” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spirit Airlines	-10.93%	-10.51%	-2.15%
Spirit Airlines Competitors	-6.47%	-40.34%	-1.65%

Risk & Volatility

Spirit Airlines has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spirit Airlines’ peers have a beta of 2.11, suggesting that their average stock price is 111% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Spirit Airlines and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Spirit Airlines	0	0	0	0	N/A
Spirit Airlines Competitors	566	2012	3173	178	2.50

As a group, “Air transportation, scheduled” companies have a potential upside of 5.70%. Given Spirit Airlines’ peers higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Spirit Airlines has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Spirit Airlines and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Spirit Airlines	$5.07 billion	-$554.15 million	-3.52
Spirit Airlines Competitors	$11.50 billion	-$605.66 million	-11.54

Spirit Airlines’ peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Spirit Airlines. Spirit Airlines 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.

Summary

Spirit Airlines peers beat Spirit Airlines on 6 of the 10 factors compared.

Spirit Airlines Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Spirit Airlines, Inc. engages in the provision of air transportation services. Its operations are concentrated in markets such as South Florida, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Northeast and Northern Midwest regions of the United States. The firm offers travel insurance, carry-on and checked baggage, online booking, and other services. The company was founded by Ned Homfeld in 1964 and is headquartered in Miramar, FL.