Last April, Spirit’s profit margin was running at 11.7%, tops among all U.S. carriers, just ahead of number two Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK), with a profit margin of 11.3%. Spirit’s return on assets was about 40% higher than Alaska’s, at 15.9% compared with 9.8%. On the basis of return on investment, Alaska posted a return of 20.2%, compared with 19.8% for Spirit.
In the second quarter, Spirit’s adjusted operating margin was 21.6% and the return on invested capital for the 12 months ended June 30 was 29.4%. Fuel costs in the quarter came to an adjusted $2.08 per gallon, a third less than the $3.13 per gallon cost in the same quarter a year ago.
Year over year, revenues rose 10.8%, driven by an increase in the number of flights, but partially offset by a decrease in operating yields. Total revenue per passenger flight segment dropped 12.4%, driven by a 19.4% decrease in ticket revenue per segment. Non-ticket revenue (fees) declined 1.7% year over year.
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The company’s CEO, Ben Baldanza, specifically noted that more than 500 flights and numerous flight delays were cancelled in June due to bad weather in a number of cities. He also mentioned the competitive pressures facing Spirit:
In addition to an unusual number of storms, we’ve recently seen a noticeable change in competitive pricing behavior. But, the fundamentals of our business haven’t changed: we continue to grow our network while maintaining high margins, delivering strong returns, and offering our customers low fares.
Spirit did not provide guidance in this report, but consensus estimates call for EPS of $1.18 on revenues of $588.65 million in the third quarter and full-year EPS of $4.17 on revenues of $2.19 billion.
In Friday’s premarket session, Spirit’s shares traded up about 0.6%, at $61.75 in a 52-week range of $52.75 to $85.35. The consensus price target on the stock was $79.40 before this report.
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