American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) & Surf Air Mobility (NYSE:SRFM) Critical Comparison

Surf Air Mobility (NYSE:SRFM) and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) are both transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Surf Air Mobility and American Airlines Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Surf Air Mobility	0	0	3	0	3.00
American Airlines Group	1	7	9	2	2.63

Surf Air Mobility presently has a consensus target price of $6.42, suggesting a potential upside of 155.64%. American Airlines Group has a consensus target price of $15.68, suggesting a potential upside of 41.81%. Given Surf Air Mobility’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Surf Air Mobility is more favorable than American Airlines Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

17.7% of Surf Air Mobility shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.4% of American Airlines Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.0% of Surf Air Mobility shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of American Airlines Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Surf Air Mobility and American Airlines Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Surf Air Mobility	-50.23%	N/A	-52.00%
American Airlines Group	1.26%	-26.59%	1.91%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Surf Air Mobility and American Airlines Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Surf Air Mobility	$119.43 million	0.41	-$74.91 million	($3.75)	-0.67
American Airlines Group	$54.21 billion	0.13	$846.00 million	$0.90	12.29

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

Risk and Volatility

Surf Air Mobility has a beta of 2.35, suggesting that its stock price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Airlines Group has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

American Airlines Group beats Surf Air Mobility on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Surf Air Mobility

Surf Air Mobility Inc. operates as an electric aviation and air travel company in the United States. The company offers an air mobility platform with scheduled routes and on demand charter flights operated by third parties. Surf Air Mobility Inc. is headquartered in Hawthorne, California.

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.