Financial Comparison: Air France-KLM (OTC:AFLYY) & Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL)

Air France-KLM (OTC:AFLYY) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Air France-KLM	0.39%	19.62%	0.34%
Delta Air Lines	5.61%	30.41%	5.30%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Air France-KLM	0	1	0	0	2.00
Delta Air Lines	0	0	13	1	3.07

Delta Air Lines has a consensus price target of $78.22, indicating a potential upside of 55.57%. Given Delta Air Lines’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Delta Air Lines is more favorable than Air France-KLM.

Volatility & Risk

Air France-KLM has a beta of 1.58, meaning that its share price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Delta Air Lines has a beta of 1.34, meaning that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Air France-KLM 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
Air France-KLM	$32.49 billion	0.09	$1.01 billion	$0.11	10.64
Delta Air Lines	$61.64 billion	0.53	$3.46 billion	$5.33	9.43

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.9% of Air France-KLM shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.9% of Delta Air Lines shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Delta Air Lines shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Delta Air Lines beats Air France-KLM on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Air France-KLM

AIR FRANCE-KLM is an airline company. The Company’s core business is passenger transport, cargo transport, and aircraft maintenance services. The Group is the world leader in terms of international passenger traffic; and its cargo activity (not including integrators) and is one of the world’s major maintenance service providers. The Group structure is simple: a holding company with two airline subsidiaries. Air France-KLM has established a set of clearly defined commitments to ensure that its strategy of profitable growth goes hand in hand with environmental quality and social progress.

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.