Southwest Airlines Vs. American Airlines Term Paper

PAGES
3
WORDS
1068
Cite

Southwest's interest coverage is comfortable, at 3.909. Southwest's operating leverage is high, as they are in a low margin business. They had a negative change in EBIT over the period, as did AMR, despite both having higher sales. Southwest's combined leverage is 1.505, much stronger than AMR, which suffered a huge decline in earnings per share despite having higher sales. 10) the weighted-average cost of capital for Southwest is 0.56%. This is based on a risk free rate of 1.2% (three-month T-Bill) and a historic return on the Dow Jones of 3.2%. For AMR, the WACC is 3.53%. This reflects that AMR's equity has a negative value, and that they do not pay dividends. Their cost of capital is the cost of their debt.

11) LUV's chart is very stable, whereas AMR's is not. AMR has been highly volatile in the past couple of years, showing strong gains and then a consistent decline. Over the same period, LUV has been virtually flat, with a slight dip at the end.

12) the growth rate for the last five years of LUV's earnings has been an average of 7.8%. This gives the present value of their next five years' earnings respectively to be $691.43, $741.21, $794.54, $851.76, and $913.12 for a total of $3,992.09. The P/E ratios for the past four quarters, based on trailing 12-month EPS are 14.35 for the latest quarter, 19.22, 24.47, and 21.94. The P/E had risen in the second quarter after a strong earnings figure but as those earnings began to decline, the price of the stock started to slip as well. Investors no longer believed in strong growth prospects for LUV.

13) Right now I would hold LUV. It is fairly valued, in my opinion. The recent FAA troubles seem to have not affected the stock so much as weaker earnings. The high P/E we'd seen in six months to a year ago was probably too much, given the growth prospects for LUV. Therefore I feel it has settled down into better price range.

Exhibit a:

LUV AMR

Gross Margin: 26.14-21.83

Operating Profit Margin: 8.02 4.21

Net...

...

Retrieved April 10, 2008 at http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/ratios.asp?symbol=LUV&WTmodLOC=R2-Ratios-1-More
ROIC, leverage and Dupont calculated from data from the latest quarterly and annual reports. Retrieved from Southwest.com and American Airlines.com on April 9, 10, 11, 2008.

On the WACC, betas, risk free and market return from MSN MoneyCentral. Retrieved April 11, 2008 http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=luv

Southwest corporate history from Southwest.com, retrieved April 8, 2008 at http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/airborne.html (April7, 2008) Southwest Airlines Travel Quality Ranked No 3. Business First of Columbus Retrieved April 8, 2008 at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/04/07/daily9.html

Michaels, Dave & Maxon, Terry. (March 13, 2008). Southwest Airlines Grounds Dozens of Jets After Safety Probe. Dallas Morning News. Retrieved April 8, 2008 at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/airlines/stories/031308dnbussouthwestjets.492e3dea.html

Sources Used in Documents:

Bibliography

Ratios except ROIC from Reuters. Retrieved April 10, 2008 at http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/ratios.asp?symbol=LUV&WTmodLOC=R2-Ratios-1-More

ROIC, leverage and Dupont calculated from data from the latest quarterly and annual reports. Retrieved from Southwest.com and American Airlines.com on April 9, 10, 11, 2008.

On the WACC, betas, risk free and market return from MSN MoneyCentral. Retrieved April 11, 2008 http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=luv

Southwest corporate history from Southwest.com, retrieved April 8, 2008 at http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/airborne.html (April7, 2008) Southwest Airlines Travel Quality Ranked No 3. Business First of Columbus Retrieved April 8, 2008 at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/04/07/daily9.html
Michaels, Dave & Maxon, Terry. (March 13, 2008). Southwest Airlines Grounds Dozens of Jets After Safety Probe. Dallas Morning News. Retrieved April 8, 2008 at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/airlines/stories/031308dnbussouthwestjets.492e3dea.html


Cite this Document:

"Southwest Airlines Vs American Airlines" (2008, April 12) Retrieved April 19, 2024, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/southwest-airlines-vs-american-airlines-30772

"Southwest Airlines Vs American Airlines" 12 April 2008. Web.19 April. 2024. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/southwest-airlines-vs-american-airlines-30772>

"Southwest Airlines Vs American Airlines", 12 April 2008, Accessed.19 April. 2024,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/southwest-airlines-vs-american-airlines-30772

Related Documents
Southwest Airlines
PAGES 3 WORDS 1071

Southwest Airlines: The corporate culture of the LUV airline Southwest Airlines is known for a unique corporate culture that is particularly distinctive, in contrast to its competitors. Southwest Airlines has "a raucous corporate culture that is the exception in the grim airline industry" (Bailey 2008). From the Airline's inception, its founder and chairman, Herbert D. Kelleher ensured that there was "a startling amount of office hugging and kissing in lieu of

Southwest Airlines
PAGES 4 WORDS 1223

Southwest Airlines Effectiveness of Southwest Leadership Southwest management has defined a clear and simple business purpose. The management has also chosen the right business model that supports the business purpose. The management consistently demonstrates the core values and behaviors derived from the key business purpose (Emerald, 2005). The quality of the airline customer service is synonymous with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit. This has kept the staff morale high. The

Southwest Airlines is one of the most successful low-cost airlines in the world. The company's focus on constant innovation, excellent labor relations, and sound financial management have ensured its success at a time when many companies have suffered from the economic downturn. In this way Southwest Airlines has created an example of business success for many. The company's success is also due to the consistency among its organization practices, which

Southwest Airlines
PAGES 3 WORDS 1009

Southwest Airlines originally began operation in 1967, but as Air Southwest Co. In 1971 its name was changed to Southwest Air Co. The purpose behind its foundation was to provide passengers with a cheap means of air travel within Texas. Today they have a fleet of 550 Boeing 737s and 37000 employees. Although it's a relatively small, domestic airline, taking passengers to 73 American cities, but it provides remarkable customer

Southwest Airlines The airline industry has been one that has consistently lost money during the last decade. Even before that, if an airline did not have a good business strategy, they were most likely doomed to failure. Many people do not remember Braniff, TWA or Pan American, but for a long time they were among the largest air carriers in the world. He present model, for airlines as well as other

Southwest Airlines Analysis Established in 1971 by Herbert D. Kelleher and several business partners, Southwest Airlines has secured a strong position in the airlines industry over the last 35 years. Southwest and its wholly owned subsidiary, Air Tran, serve a combined 103 destinations in 41 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and six near-international countries (Johnson, 2011). Both entities combined offer over 4000 daily flights. The