Is the business good?
How good a business is UAL?
United Airlines Holdings earns 15% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
15%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 5.5 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 7.8%
Operating margin · Airlines median 6.3% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.73×
Cash conversion · 1.22× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −0.18%
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 Q2 2026
- 7.8%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 5.6%
- Free cash flow margin
- 4.0%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $62.9B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $2.54B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $3.50B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 15%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.