QAN share price in focus
Qantas was founded in 1921 and is today Australia’s largest airline operator by fleet size, number of international flights, and number of destinations.
It’s involved in the operation of domestic and international flights under its Qantas and Jetstar brands, as well as freight services and the management of its Frequent Flyer loyalty program.
Despite (or perhaps because of) its significant market power, the airline has fallen out of favour with Australian consumers over the last few years, consistently ranking as one of the country’s most distrusted brands according to Roy Morgan surveys. Still, with a huge market share and more services than other airlines they’ve managed to continue growing revenue and profit since the end of the pandemic.
SOL shares
Washington H. Soul Pattinson (WHSP) is a diversified investment company with a portfolio of assets across a range of industries and asset classes.
Some of SOL’s largest holdings include stakes in other well-known publicly listed companies such as TPG Telecom (ASX: TPG), New Hope Group (ASX: NHC) and a cross-shareholding in Brickworks (ASX: BKW).
SOL’s aim is to deliver superior returns to its shareholders by creating capital growth and steadily increasing dividends as a holding company. As the second-oldest publicly listed company on the ASX it has developed a strong track record of doing just that. In fact, SOL has never missed a dividend payment since listing in 1903! It could best be thought of as a family-run LIC with directors that are financially aligned with shareholders.
QAN & SOL share price valuation
As a growth company, one way to put a broad projection on the QAN share price could be to compare its price-to-sales multiple over time. This can tell us how the company has historically been valued relative to its total revenue.
Currently, Qantas Airways Ltd shares have a price-sales ratio of 0.61x, compared to its 5-year average of 0.88x, meaning its shares are trading lower than their historical average. This could mean that the share price has fallen, or sales have increased, or both. In the case of QAN, revenue has been growing over the last 3 years. Of course, context is important – and this is just one valuation technique. Investment decisions can’t just be based on one metric, but this can be a rough starting point.
Since SOL is more of a ‘blue chip’ company, we could look at its dividend yield to determine its value. If we compare it to the historical dividend yield, we can get a sense of the stability of the company and its ability to pay out income. SOL is paying a trailing dividend yield of around 2.69%, which compares to its 5-year average of 2.44%. This is just one of many ways you could put a value on SOL shares. The Rask websites offer free online investing courses, created by analysts explaining valuation methods like Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Dividend Discount Models (DDM). They even include free valuation spreadsheets which can help you learn how to value a company like QAN or SOL.
