UAL vs AAL Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Compare United Airlines' international-hub strength against American Airlines' higher leverage and domestic route concentration.
Use this United Airlines vs American Airlines comparison to evaluate the key differences across valuation, growth, profitability, and risk before making an investment decision.
UAL holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. UAL has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+16.16% vs -0.38%), though AAL has the better forward P/E setup (5.79x vs 7.26x for UAL). On fundamentals, AAL is growing revenue faster (16.30%), while UAL maintains the higher operating margin (5.53%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for UAL (+45.94%) than for AAL (+37.19%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
| Metric | UAL | AAL |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 44.0 | 27.0 |
| AI ranki | #854 | #2442 |
| Latest closei | $109.24 | $13.08 |
| 1M returni | -2.91% | +1.08% |
| 3M returni | -14.92% | -18.45% |
| 6M returni | +21.28% | +10.75% |
| 1Y returni | +16.16% | -0.38% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | UAL | AAL |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.37K (+13.7%) started 2025-11-03 | $9.81K (-1.9%) started 2025-11-03 |
| 5Y ago | $22.27K (+122.7%) started 2021-11-03 | $6.34K (-36.6%) started 2021-11-03 |
| 10Y ago | $19.53K (+95.3%) started 2016-11-03 | $3.32K (-66.8%) started 2016-11-03 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | UAL | AAL |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $35.9B | $8.61B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 10.36 | 48.32 |
| Forward P/Ei | 7.26 | 5.79 |
| Price/Salesi | 0.48 | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 0.84 | 0.62 |
| Analyst targeti | $161.41 | $17.85 |
| Target upsidei | +45.94% | +37.19% |
| Metric | UAL | AAL |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 16.00% | 16.30% |
| Earnings growthi | -17.20% | -88.20% |
| EPS growthi | -17.20% | -88.20% |
| FCF margini | +1.45% | +0.89% |
| Operating margini | 5.53% | 2.81% |
| Profit margini | 5.56% | -0.56% |
| ROIC proxyi | 23.25% | N/A |
| Return on equityi | 23.25% | N/A |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | N/A |
| Betai | 1.29 | 1.33 |
| Debt/equityi | 201.64 | N/A |
| Current ratioi | 0.78 | 0.53 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.69 | 0.38 |
Over the past year, UAL and AAL have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.85), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | UAL | AAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +13.66% | -1.95% |
| CAGRi | +13.71% | -1.95% | |
| Volatilityi | 48.33% | 46.85% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.41 | 0.09 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.65 | 0.14 | |
| Max drawdowni | 29.76% | 37.39% | |
| Current drawdowni | 19.74% | 27.93% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 11.83% | 17.32% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 14.61% | 20.73% | |
| Max daily dropi | 8.70% | 8.35% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 18.04% | 15.42% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +122.71% | -36.60% |
| CAGRi | +17.37% | -8.71% | |
| Volatilityi | 49.10% | 48.42% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.48 | -0.04 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.73 | -0.06 | |
| Max drawdowni | 49.19% | 59.25% | |
| Current drawdowni | 19.74% | 41.24% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 17.00% | 36.81% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 20.12% | 38.32% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.61% | 14.48% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 29.73% | 25.57% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +95.28% | -66.79% |
| CAGRi | +6.92% | -10.44% | |
| Volatilityi | 51.83% | 53.08% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.30 | -0.03 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.45 | -0.05 | |
| Max drawdowni | 79.40% | 84.54% | |
| Current drawdowni | 19.74% | 77.63% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 31.91% | 59.06% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 39.15% | 64.20% | |
| Max daily dropi | 30.29% | 25.22% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 56.67% | 35.76% |
| Category | UAL | AAL |
|---|---|---|
| Company | UAL | AAL |
| Sector | Industrials | Industrials |
| Industry | Airlines | Airlines |
| Core business | United Airlines Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides air transportation services in the United States, Canada, Atlantic, the Pacific, and Latin America. | American Airlines Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a network air carrier in the United States, Latin America, Atlantic, and Pacific. |
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Volatility, Sharpe and Sortino ratios, maximum, current, and average drawdown, Ulcer Index, and worst single-day and single-week drops across every timeframe.
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