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Why the Market Dipped But Delta Air Lines (DAL) Gained Today

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Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $46.92, moving +0.51% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.29%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.25%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.31%.

Coming into today, shares of the airline had gained 16.35% in the past month. In that same time, the Transportation sector gained 4.32%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.57%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Delta Air Lines in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.53, signifying a 24.63% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $15.54 billion, showing a 0.35% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.07 per share and revenue of $59.59 billion, which would represent changes of -2.88% and +2.65%, respectively, from the prior year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Delta Air Lines. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 1.17% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Delta Air Lines is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

With respect to valuation, Delta Air Lines is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.68. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.4, which means Delta Air Lines is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that DAL currently has a PEG ratio of 0.91. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Transportation - Airline industry stood at 1.07 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 182, placing it within the bottom 29% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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