Copa Holdings, (CPA) & Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY) Financial Comparison

Copa Holdings, (NYSE: CPA) and Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:RYAAY) are both transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.4% of Copa Holdings, shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.7% of Ryanair Holdings PLC shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Copa Holdings, has a beta of 1.8, indicating that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ryanair Holdings PLC has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Copa Holdings, and Ryanair Holdings PLC, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Copa Holdings,	0	4	7	0	2.64
Ryanair Holdings PLC	2	2	8	0	2.50

Copa Holdings, currently has a consensus price target of $108.80, indicating a potential downside of 12.06%. Ryanair Holdings PLC has a consensus price target of $96.00, indicating a potential downside of 16.93%. Given Copa Holdings,’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Copa Holdings, is more favorable than Ryanair Holdings PLC.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Copa Holdings, and Ryanair Holdings PLC’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Copa Holdings,	$2.37 billion	2.21	$518.91 million	$7.91	15.64
Ryanair Holdings PLC	N/A	N/A	N/A	$6.48	17.83

Copa Holdings, has higher revenue and earnings than Ryanair Holdings PLC. Copa Holdings, is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ryanair Holdings PLC, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Copa Holdings, pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Ryanair Holdings PLC does not pay a dividend. Copa Holdings, pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Copa Holdings, and Ryanair Holdings PLC’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Copa Holdings,	14.17%	14.98%	7.17%
Ryanair Holdings PLC	21.44%	34.02%	13.43%

Summary

Copa Holdings, beats Ryanair Holdings PLC on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Copa Holdings,

Copa Holdings, S.A. is a provider of airline passenger and cargo service through its principal operating subsidiaries, Compania Panamena de Aviacion, S. A. (Copa Airlines) and AeroRepublica, S. A. (Copa Colombia). The Company operates through air transportation segment. Copa Airlines operates from its position located in the Republic of Panama. Copa Airlines provides international air transportation for passengers, cargo and mail, operating from its Panama City hub in the Republic of Panama. Copa Colombia provides service within Colombia and international flights from various cities in Colombia to Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Copa Colombia provides domestic and international air transportation for passengers, cargo and mail with a point-to-point route network. Its subsidiary, Oval Financial Leasing, Ltd., controls the special purpose entities that have a beneficial interest in the majority of its fleet.

About Ryanair Holdings PLC

Ryanair Holdings plc (Ryanair Holdings) is a holding company for Ryanair Limited (Ryanair). Ryanair operates an ultra-low fare, scheduled-passenger airline serving short-haul, point-to-point routes between Ireland, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Morocco and Israel. Ryanair provides various ancillary services and engages in other activities connected with its core air passenger service, including non-flight scheduled services, Internet-related services, and the in-flight sale of beverages, food and merchandise. Ryanair markets accommodation services and travel insurance through its Website. It provides hotel and accommodation services. Ryanair provides its own aircraft and passenger handling and ticketing services at Dublin Airport. As of June 30, 2016, Ryanair had a principal fleet of over 350 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and offered over 2,000 scheduled short-haul flights per day serving approximately 200 airports throughout Europe.