Stocks
Visualizing the World’s Largest Airline Companies
Through most of its history, the commercial airline industry has had a somewhat turbulent relationship with investors.
For example, during the span of 2003-2011, the three major U.S. carriers (American, United, and Delta) all filed for bankruptcy, and this was subsequently after merging with other large airlines (US Airways, Continental, and Northwest) that each had their own solvency issues.
Despite the rough ride a decade ago, just last year the industry raked in $35.6 billion in profits – a record-setting amount according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Even legendary investor Warren Buffett is flying high on airline stocks at the moment, and he’s recently floated the idea of buying a whole carrier for Berkshire’s portfolio.
Comparing Airlines
Today’s graphic comes from Reddit user /u/takeasecond and it uses data from the Forbes Global 2000 list to plot the world’s largest publicly-traded airlines in terms of revenue, profit, assets, and market value.
It provides some interesting insights on the industry, showing some unexpected carriers leading the way.
There are four companies that stand out instantly on the chart. Air France-KLM and Cathay Pacific are both easy to spot, but for the wrong reasons. They are to the left of the $0 profit line, and Forbes has their most recent net incomes listed as -$309 million and -$162 million respectively.
In the upper right corner, Delta Air Lines appears to be one of the healthiest companies by many measures. It ranks second in sales ($42B) and profitability ($3.5B), and comes out on top in terms of assets ($54B) and market value ($37B).
Finally, to the bottom right is Southwest Airlines – it has the highest profitability ($3.6B) but is able to do it at far higher margins than the rest of the pack.
Ranking Profitability and Sales
Here are two of the most important metrics – revenue and profit – for the 10 publicly-traded airlines with the most sales:
| Rank | Airline | Revenue ($B) | Profit ($B) | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | American Airlines | $43.0 | $1.9 | 4.4% |
| #2 | Delta Air Lines | $42.1 | $3.5 | 8.3% |
| #3 | Deutsche Lufthansa | $41.5 | $2.8 | 6.7% |
| #4 | United Continental | $38.3 | $2.2 | 5.7% |
| #5 | Air France-KLM | $29.1 | -$0.3 | -1.1% |
| #6 | International Airlines | $26.0 | $2.3 | 8.8% |
| #7 | Southwest | $21.2 | $3.6 | 17.0% |
| #8 | China Southern | $19.7 | $1.0 | 5.1% |
| #9 | All Nippon | $17.8 | $1.3 | 7.3% |
| #10 | China Eastern | $15.7 | $0.8 | 5.3% |
Note: Margin is calculated based on Forbes’ numbers above
In recent months, the IATA has revised its outlook for 2018 after originally forecasting record-setting airline revenues again.
The organization now sees profits falling to $33.8 billion, a 12% decrease on its original forecast.
Economy
Animated Chart: The S&P 500 in 2023 So Far
Track the S&P 500’s performance in 2023, including all 500 companies, and the sectors they belong to, in this animated video.
Creator Program
The S&P 500’s Performance in 2023 Q1
With one quarter of 2023 in the books, how has the S&P 500 performed so far?
The index had a tumultuous 2022, ending the year down 18%, its worst performance since 2008. But so far, despite dealing with tight monetary conditions and an unexpected banking crisis, the S&P 500 has promptly started to rebound.
The above animation from Jan Varsava shows the stock performance of each company on the S&P 500, categorized by sector.
Biggest Gainers on the S&P 500
The S&P 500 increased 7.5% during the first quarter of 2023. Though it was led by a few big outperformers, more than half of the stocks on the index closed above their end-of-December prices.
Here are the top 30 biggest gainers on the index from January 1 to March 31, 2023.
| Rank | Company | 3-Month Return |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nvidia | 90.1% |
| 2 | Meta (Facebook) | 76.1% |
| 3 | Tesla | 68.4% |
| 4 | Warner Bros. Discovery | 59.3% |
| 5 | Align Technology | 58.4% |
| 6 | AMD | 51.3% |
| 7 | Salesforce | 50.7% |
| 8 | West Pharmaceuticals | 47.3% |
| 9 | General Electric | 46.3% |
| 10 | Catalent | 46.0% |
| 11 | First Solar | 45.2% |
| 12 | Monolithic Power Systems | 41.8% |
| 13 | MarketAxess Holdings | 40.6% |
| 14 | GE Healthcare Tech | 40.5% |
| 15 | Arista Networks | 38.3% |
| 16 | ANSYS Inc. | 37.8% |
| 17 | Fortinet Inc. | 35.9% |
| 18 | Wynn Resorts | 35.7% |
| 19 | Paramount Global | 33.8% |
| 20 | FedEx Corp | 32.7% |
| 21 | MGM Resorts | 32.5% |
| 22 | Royal Caribbean Group | 32.1% |
| 23 | ON Semiconductor Corp | 32.0% |
| 24 | Booking Holdings | 31.6% |
| 25 | Cadence Design Systems | 30.8% |
| 26 | Skyworks Solutions | 30.2% |
| 27 | Pulte Group | 28.4% |
| 28 | Seagate Technology | 27.1% |
| 29 | Apple | 27.1% |
| 30 | Lam Research | 26.6% |
Nvidia shares gained the most of all the companies on the S&P 500 in Q1 2023, posting a staggering 90% return over three months.
As the world’s largest chipmaker by market cap, Nvidia gained from both strong earnings and semiconductor industry performance. It also benefited from the rising prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) through software like ChatGPT.
Meanwhile, other tech giants Apple and Microsoft gained 27% and 21% respectively over the same time period.
Tech Leads Returns by Sector
The technology sector as a whole was the best performing sectoral index thanks to these big moves, up 21.7% at the end of March.
| Sector | 3-Month Return |
|---|---|
| Technology | 21.65% |
| Consumer Services | 21.27% |
| Consumer Discretionary | 16.60% |
| Materials | 4.29% |
| Industrials | 3.47% |
| Real Estate | 1.95% |
| Consumer Staples | 0.72% |
| Utilities | -3.24% |
| Health Care | -4.31% |
| Energy | -4.37% |
| Financials | -5.56% |
| S&P 500 | 7.5% |
Shares of other tech-adjacent companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Tesla—listed on the S&P 500 under the categories of communication services and consumer discretionary—also had a strong start to the year and lifted their respective sectors.
Meta in particular is up 76% in Q1 2023, continuing its rebound after falling to an eight-year low in November 2022 on the back of better-than-expected fourth quarter results and share buybacks.
Biggest Losers on the S&P 500
On the other side of the S&P 500, the financial sector was rocked by sudden collapses.
Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Financial Group shares lost the most ground in the first quarter, after both banks collapsed, shedding nearly all of their value in a matter of 30 days.
In fact, seven of the 10 worst performers on the index to start 2023 are banks or financial companies. The visualization shows the ripple effect on the market after the collapse of regional banks in March, and the ensuing rout driving the entire sector down 5.6% year-to-date.
Here are the top 30 biggest losers on the index from January 1 to March 31, 2023.
| Rank | Company | 3-Month Return |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Signature Bank | -99.8% |
| 2 | Silicon Valley Financial Group | -99.6% |
| 3 | First Republic Bank | -88.5% |
| 4 | Lumen Technologies | -49.2% |
| 5 | Zions Bancorporation | -38.6% |
| 6 | Charles Schwab Corp | -36.9% |
| 7 | Comerica Incorporated | -33.9% |
| 8 | DISH Network | -33.5% |
| 9 | KeyCorp | -27.3% |
| 10 | Lincoln National Corp | -25.8% |
| 11 | Centene Corporation | -22.9% |
| 12 | Cigna Group | -22.5% |
| 13 | APA Corporation | -22.3% |
| 14 | Citizens Financial Group | -22.1% |
| 15 | Enphase Energy Inc. | -20.6% |
| 16 | Baxter International Inc. | -19.9% |
| 17 | Truist Financial Corporation | -19.9% |
| 18 | American International Group | -19.8% |
| 19 | CVS Health Corporation | -19.7% |
| 20 | Pfizer | -19.6% |
| 21 | Gen Digital | -19.5% |
| 22 | MetLife | -19.4% |
| 23 | Huntington Bancshares | -19.4% |
| 24 | Fidelity National | -19.3% |
| 25 | Halliburton Company | -19.2% |
| 26 | Molina Healthcare | -19.0% |
| 27 | PNC Financial Services | -18.8% |
| 28 | Boston Properties | -18.4% |
| 29 | Fifth Third Bancorp | -17.8% |
| 30 | Allstate Corporation | -17.7% |
Despite the tight monetary landscape, traditionally defensive sectors like energy, consumer staples, and healthcare also underperformed the broader index. This is a reversal from market trends seen in 2022.
Investment Trends to Watch for in 2023
Experts predict a pause in U.S. interest rate hikes “sometime in 2023” but it’s unclear when (or at what level) the pause will take place given persistent inflation in the economy.
However, if interest rates level off in 2023, it could be a key momentum maker for the S&P 500. As Barron’s points out, the index tends to rise after hikes are paused.
Meanwhile, the current tumult in the financial sector is fanning the flames of recessionary fears. How effectively regulators manage the crisis might be the story of the year.
Finally, as we have seen in 2023 so far, investor interest in AI has sent tech stocks soaring. Is this a quick fad, or an overarching trend for the year?
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