Head to Head Comparison: Air France-KLM (OTC:AFLYY) and LATAM Airlines Group (OTCMKTS:LTMAQ)

LATAM Airlines Group (OTCMKTS:LTMAQ) and Air France-KLM (OTC:AFLYY) are both transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for LATAM Airlines Group and Air France-KLM, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LATAM Airlines Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Air France-KLM	0	1	0	0	2.00

Given LATAM Airlines Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe LATAM Airlines Group is more favorable than Air France-KLM.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.9% of Air France-KLM shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of LATAM Airlines Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

LATAM Airlines Group has a beta of 2.73, meaning that its stock price is 173% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Air France-KLM has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LATAM Airlines Group and Air France-KLM’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LATAM Airlines Group	-59.52%	N/A	-31.39%
Air France-KLM	0.39%	19.62%	0.34%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LATAM Airlines Group and Air France-KLM”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LATAM Airlines Group	$4.88 billion	0.00	-$4.65 billion	($7.17)	N/A
Air France-KLM	$32.49 billion	0.09	$1.01 billion	$0.21	5.24

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

Summary

Air France-KLM beats LATAM Airlines Group on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LATAM Airlines Group

LATAM Airlines Group S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides passenger and cargo air transportation services primarily in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, other Latin American countries, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and Oceania. As of June 30, 2022, it provided passenger transport services to 133 destinations in 20 countries and cargo services to approximately 141 destinations in 23 countries, with an operating fleet of 300 aircraft and subleased one B767 cargo freighter to a third party. The company was formerly known as LAN Airlines S.A. and changed its name to LATAM Airlines Group S.A. in June 2012. LATAM Airlines Group S.A. was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. On May 26, 2020, LATAM Airlines Group S.A., along with its affiliates, filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

About Air France-KLM

AIR FRANCE-KLM is an airline company. The Company’s core business is passenger transport, cargo transport, and aircraft maintenance services. The Group is the world leader in terms of international passenger traffic; and its cargo activity (not including integrators) and is one of the world’s major maintenance service providers. The Group structure is simple: a holding company with two airline subsidiaries. Air France-KLM has established a set of clearly defined commitments to ensure that its strategy of profitable growth goes hand in hand with environmental quality and social progress.