Analyzing Air Canada (ACDVF) and The Competition

Air Canada (OTCMKTS:ACDVF) is one of 78 publicly-traded companies in the “Passenger Airlines” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Air Canada to similar companies based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

43.0% of shares of all “Passenger Airlines” companies are owned by institutional investors. 11.2% of shares of all “Passenger Airlines” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Air Canada and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Air Canada	1	3	6	1	2.64
Air Canada Competitors	1524	4060	6678	353	2.46

As a group, “Passenger Airlines” companies have a potential upside of 13.53%. Given Air Canada’s rivals higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Air Canada has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Air Canada and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Air Canada	$16.01 billion	$460.91 million	20.66
Air Canada Competitors	$15.23 billion	$637.69 million	19.35

Air Canada has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its rivals. Air Canada is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Air Canada and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Air Canada	1.82%	20.11%	1.58%
Air Canada Competitors	-17.99%	5.88%	1.10%

Risk & Volatility

Air Canada has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Air Canada’s rivals have a beta of 17.40, meaning that their average stock price is 1,640% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Air Canada beats its rivals on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About Air Canada

Air Canada provides domestic, U.S. transborder, and international airline services. The company provides scheduled passenger services under the Air Canada Vacations and Air Canada Rouge brand names in the Canadian market, the Canada-U.S. transborder market, and in the international market to and from Canada, as well as through capacity purchase agreements on other regional carriers. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 203 aircraft under the Air Canada brand name comprising 115 Airbus narrow-body aircraft, and 88 Airbus wide-body aircraft; 118 aircraft under the Air Canada Express brand name, including 25 Embraer 175, 15 Mitsubishi CRJ-200, 35 Mitsubishi CRJ-900, and 43 De Havilland Dash 8-400aircraft; and 40 aircraft under the Air Canada Rouge brand name consisting of 17 Airbus A321 aircraft, 5 Airbus A320 aircraft, and 18 Airbus A319 aircraft. The company provides air cargo services in approximately 50 countries, including Toronto, Halifax, St. John's, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Quito, Lima, San Juan, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Bogotá, Madrid, Frankfurt, Basel, and Liege. In addition, it develops, operates, markets, and distributes vacation travel packages in the Caribbean, Mexico, the United States, Europe, Central and South America, South Pacific, Australia, and Asia; offers cruise packages in North America, Europe, and the Caribbean; and provides travel loyalty programs. Air Canada was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Saint-Laurent, Canada.