AerCap Holdings N.V. Ordinary Shares (AER) fair value

ACCE thesis

AerCap leases commercial aircraft and engines to airlines worldwide, making it the largest aircraft lessor by fleet value and a primary source of narrowbody capacity for carriers that prefer leasing to owning. The moat is scale and capital access: a fleet of this size lets it buy new aircraft directly from Airbus and Boeing on favourable terms and place them across more than 200 airline customers, which is difficult for a smaller lessor to replicate. Revenue grew 14.9% and the operating margin sits at 57.5%, with ROE of 18.7%, so the business is converting that scale into unusually high returns on the capital it deploys. At a trailing P/E of 7.1 and a forward P/E of 8.0, the market is pricing in a sharp reversal in lease economics, and a deeper look should focus on whether aircraft lease rates and utilisation hold up through the next cycle. The stock is not in any major index, which may partly explain the discount.