UALUnited Airlines Holdings
Is the business good?
The checks split: earnings fully cash-backed (2.1×), but returns that lean on debt.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is worsening vs a year ago.
Negative operating leverage, costs are rising faster than sales, squeezing margins as it grows.
Leverage-amplified, a high assets-to-equity ratio does much of the work. ROE 22% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is UAL?
United Airlines Holdings earns 13% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 4.2 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 7.5%
Operating margin · Airlines median 7.5% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 2.10×
Cash conversion · 2.52× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- +0.15%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | −41% |
| FY2021 | −4.2% |
| FY2022 | 5.2% |
| FY2023 | 7.8% |
| FY2024 | 8.9% |
| FY2025 | 8.0% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 7.5%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 5.5%
- Free cash flow margin
- 1.7%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $65.6B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $1.12B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $3.58B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 13%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.
Customers and suppliers
Who buys from UAL and who it buys from, as the companies report it.
None disclosed.
- BABoeing
Named in UAL’s FY2025 10-K
A company has to disclose every customer behind 10% or more of its revenue. Each share comes from the latest annual report of the company that states it and shows on both companies’ pages; UAL’s own figures are from its FY2025 10-K. Smaller customers and suppliers go unreported. A link without a share is named in one of the two companies’ annual reports, without a figure.
Airlines
The closest names by size in the same industry