Reference no: EM133197861

In the three-year period American Airlines return on stockholders' equity gained 3.75% in 2019, lost -17.77% in 2020 and another -3.32% in 2021. In comparison, United Airlines stockholders' initial investments gained 10.03% in 2019, lost 20.20% in 2020 and another -4.91% in 2021. Say $100 were invested in each company, the ending value in 2021 would be: $82.44 for American Airlines and $83.5 for United Airlines. For the three years period, from the initial investment of 100, American Airlines' stockholders saw a 17.56% decrease compared to United Airlines stockholders' decrease of 16.65% in their investment. It's clear the pandemic recession affected both companies, causing their stock prices to plummet with profit losses to both businesses and investors. However, United Airlines managed to save their investors from losing 1% of their investment in addition to paying out more dividends, deeming them lower risk than American Airlines.