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Delta Air Lines (DAL) Laps the Stock Market: Here's Why

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In the latest trading session, Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) closed at $47.80, marking a +1.36% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.25%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.56%.

Coming into today, shares of the airline had gained 15.08% in the past month. In that same time, the Transportation sector gained 2.16%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.65%.

The upcoming earnings release of Delta Air Lines will be of great interest to investors. In that report, analysts expect Delta Air Lines to post earnings of $1.54 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 24.14%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $15.49 billion, indicating no movement from the same quarter last year.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.11 per share and a revenue of $59.45 billion, representing changes of -2.24% and +2.42%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Delta Air Lines. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 3.11% higher. Right now, Delta Air Lines possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In the context of valuation, Delta Air Lines is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 7.72. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.22.

We can also see that DAL currently has a PEG ratio of 0.91. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Transportation - Airline industry stood at 0.87 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Transportation - Airline industry is part of the Transportation sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 76, positioning it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.


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