Head-To-Head Review: Qantas Airways (OTCMKTS:QUBSF) versus American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL)

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) and Qantas Airways (OTCMKTS:QUBSF) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for American Airlines Group and Qantas Airways, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Airlines Group	2	11	8	0	2.29
Qantas Airways	0	0	0	0	0.00

American Airlines Group currently has a consensus price target of $18.86, suggesting a potential upside of 38.28%. Given American Airlines Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe American Airlines Group is more favorable than Qantas Airways.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.4% of American Airlines Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.1% of Qantas Airways shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of American Airlines Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares American Airlines Group and Qantas Airways’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Airlines Group	-0.56%	-9.11%	-0.27%
Qantas Airways	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares American Airlines Group and Qantas Airways”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Airlines Group	$54.63 billion	0.17	$111.00 million	($0.49)	-27.84
Qantas Airways	N/A	N/A	N/A	($1.28)	-5.35

American Airlines Group has higher revenue and earnings than Qantas Airways. American Airlines Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Qantas Airways, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

American Airlines Group beats Qantas Airways on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Airlines Group

American Airlines Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a network air carrier. The company provides scheduled air transportation services for passengers and cargo through its hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., as well as through partner gateways in London, Doha, Madrid, Seattle/Tacoma, Sydney, and Tokyo. It operates a mainline fleet of 965 aircraft. The company was formerly known as AMR Corporation and changed its name to American Airlines Group Inc. in December 2013. American Airlines Group Inc. was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

About Qantas Airways

Qantas Airways Limited provides air transportation services in Australia and internationally. The company operates through Qantas Domestic, Qantas International, Jetstar Group, and Qantas Loyalty segments. It offers passenger flying, and air cargo and express freight services; and customer loyalty recognition programs. The company operates a fleet of aircraft under the Qantas and Jetstar brands. Qantas Airways Limited was founded in 1920 and is based in Mascot, Australia.