Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Delta Air Lines (DAL) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $31.96, moving +1.85% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.46%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.17%.

Heading into today, shares of the airline had lost 22.94% over the past month, lagging the Transportation sector's loss of 6.24% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.94% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Delta Air Lines as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Delta Air Lines is projected to report earnings of $1.65 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 254.21%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.02 billion, up 82.74% from the year-ago period.

DAL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3 per share and revenue of $46.71 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +173.53% and +56.23%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Delta Air Lines. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 8.95% higher. Delta Air Lines is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note Delta Air Lines's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 10.47. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.67.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 193, putting it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

Published in