Delta Air Lines (DAL) closed the most recent trading day at $48.60, moving -1.62% from the previous trading session. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.56% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.58%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.51%.
Heading into today, shares of the airline had gained 17.4% over the past month, outpacing the Transportation sector's gain of 9.07% and the S&P 500's gain of 7.37% in that time.
The upcoming earnings release of Delta Air Lines will be of great interest to investors. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.97, signifying a 16.53% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $16.13 billion, indicating a 3.2% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
DAL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.26 per share and revenue of $60.9 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -14.61% and -1.2%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Delta Air Lines should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. 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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.25% lower. Delta Air Lines currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Delta Air Lines is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.39. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 9.31.
It is also worth noting that DAL currently has a PEG ratio of 2.41. 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. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Transportation - Airline industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.89.
The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 134, positioning it in the bottom 46% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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