Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL)
NYSE:DAL
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Delta Air Lines
(NYSE:DAL)
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Rating:72Outperform
Price Target:
$73.00
▲(1.78% Upside)
Action:ReiteratedDate:04/08/26
The score is driven primarily by solid financial performance (profitability, strong cash generation, and materially improved leverage) and attractive valuation (low P/E). This is moderated by mixed technical trends and earnings-call risks tied to a sharp fuel-cost shock, ongoing unit-cost pressure, and reduced full-year visibility despite upbeat near-term revenue and margin guidance.
Positive Factors
Strong cash generation & deleveraging
Sustained multi-billion operating and free cash flow with meaningful debt reduction materially improves financial flexibility. This durable cash generation supports ongoing deleveraging, capital spending, and shareholder returns while providing a buffer through airline cycles and funding strategic investments without relying on volatile external financing.
Negative Factors
Large jet fuel cost exposure
Sharp, sustained jet fuel inflation is a structural margin headwind for network carriers. Even with mitigation (refinery benefits, recapture), multi-billion-dollar fuel swings can erode operating margins and free cash flow for several quarters, limiting capital allocation flexibility and forcing capacity or pricing tradeoffs during elevated fuel regimes.
Read all positive and negative factors
Positive Factors
Negative Factors
Strong cash generation & deleveraging
Sustained multi-billion operating and free cash flow with meaningful debt reduction materially improves financial flexibility. This durable cash generation supports ongoing deleveraging, capital spending, and shareholder returns while providing a buffer through airline cycles and funding strategic investments without relying on volatile external financing.
Read all positive factors
Delta Air Lines (DAL) vs. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
Market Cap
$44.81B
Dividend Yield0.96%
Average Volume (3M)14.11M
Price to Earnings (P/E)―
Beta (1Y)1.16
Revenue Growth5.24%
EPS Growth20.93%
CountryUS
Employees100,000
SectorIndustrials
Sector Strength72
IndustryAirlines, Airports & Air Services
Share Statistics
EPS (TTM)0.64
Shares Outstanding656,994,140
10 Day Avg. Volume12,356,131
30 Day Avg. Volume14,111,450
Financial Highlights & Ratios
PEG Ratio0.21
Price to Book (P/B)2.17
Price to Sales (P/S)0.71
P/FCF Ratio11.71
Enterprise Value/Market Cap1.19
Enterprise Value/Revenue0.82
Enterprise Value/Gross Profit3.12
Enterprise Value/Ebitda5.52
Forecast
1Y Price Target
$81.21Price Target Upside13.24% Upside
Rating ConsensusStrong Buy
Number of Analyst Covering15
EPS Forecast (FY)5.39
Revenue Forecast (FY)$64.57B
Delta Air Lines Business Overview & Revenue Model
Company Description
Delta Air Lines, Inc. provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, ...
How the Company Makes Money
Delta primarily makes money by selling air transportation and related services. The largest revenue stream is passenger revenue from tickets across fare classes (e.g., economy and premium cabins) on domestic and international routes; pricing and r...
Delta Air Lines Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Any
Passenger Miles
Measures the total distance flown by paying passengers, indicating demand for flights and overall airline capacity utilization.
Measures the total distance flown by paying passengers, indicating demand for flights and overall airline capacity utilization.
Data provided by:
The Fly
The FlyDelta Air Lines Earnings Call Summary
Earnings Call Date:Apr 08, 2026
(Q1-2026)
| % Change Since: |
Next Earnings Date:Jul 09, 2026
Earnings Call Sentiment Positive
The call presented a largely positive operational and financial story—record revenue, strong unit revenue, margin improvement guidance for Q2, robust cash generation, improved leverage and clear commercial momentum across premium, loyalty and corporate segments. These positives are tempered by a significant and sudden jet fuel shock (adding >$2 billion of quarterly expense), persistent nonfuel cost pressure, near-term reliability issues tied to contract changes, and limited full-year visibility. Management emphasized mitigation actions (capacity discipline, fuel recapture, refinery offset) and confidence in long-term structural advantages.Positive Updates
Record Quarterly Revenue and Strong Top-Line Growth
Total revenue of $14.2 billion, a March-quarter record and up 9.4% year-over-year (nearly $1 billion increase). Management expects low-teens revenue growth in the June quarter.
Negative Updates
Sharp Jet Fuel Spike and Large Near-Term Headwind
Jet fuel price assumption for the June quarter ~ $4.30/gallon (forward curve as of April 2), roughly double last year and adding more than $2 billion of incremental fuel expense in the quarter. Q1 fuel averaged $2.62/gallon, ~ $0.40 higher than planned.
Read all updates
Q1-2026 Updates
Positive
Negative
Record Quarterly Revenue and Strong Top-Line Growth
Total revenue of $14.2 billion, a March-quarter record and up 9.4% year-over-year (nearly $1 billion increase). Management expects low-teens revenue growth in the June quarter.
Read all positive updates
Company Guidance
Management guided June‑quarter results to low‑teens total revenue growth on flat capacity, targeting a 6%–8% operating margin with roughly $1.0B pretax profit and $1.00–$1.50 in EPS, and said it expects to recapture 40%–50% of a more than $2B fuel headwind; the outlook uses an April‑2 forward fuel curve of ~$4.30/gal (about double last year) with an estimated $300M refinery benefit and notes nonfuel unit costs should grow at a similar rate to Q1 (≈6% YoY) as capacity is meaningfully reduced this quarter. For context, Q1 revenue was $14.2B (+9.4% YoY) with operating margin 4.6%, pretax profit $530M, EPS $0.64, fuel averaged $2.62/gal (incl. $0.06 refinery benefit), operating cash flow was $2.4B (after $1.3B profit‑sharing), free cash flow $1.2B, adjusted net debt $13.5B (down 20% YoY) and gross leverage 2.4x; MRO revenue was $380M in Q1 with a full‑year outlook of ~$1.2B, and management noted cash sales were up mid‑teens in March.Delta Air Lines Financial Statement Overview
Summary
Income Statement
78
Positive
Balance Sheet
64
Positive
Cash Flow
72
Positive
| Breakdown | TTM | Dec 2025 | Dec 2024 | Dec 2023 | Dec 2022 | Dec 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Income Statement | ||||||
| Total Revenue | 65.18B | 63.36B | 61.64B | 58.05B | 50.58B | 29.90B |
| Gross Profit | 17.07B | 14.47B | 16.56B | 15.52B | 11.16B | 2.13B |
| EBITDA | 9.66B | 8.03B | 7.92B | 8.78B | 5.05B | 3.67B |
| Net Income | 4.48B | 5.00B | 3.46B | 4.61B | 1.32B | 280.00M |
Balance Sheet | ||||||
| Total Assets | 84.43B | 81.19B | 75.37B | 73.64B | 72.28B | 72.47B |
| Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments | 5.05B | 4.31B | 3.07B | 3.87B | 6.53B | 11.32B |
| Total Debt | 14.16B | 21.08B | 22.77B | 27.28B | 30.61B | 34.68B |
| Total Liabilities | 64.06B | 60.43B | 60.08B | 62.54B | 65.71B | 68.57B |
| Stockholders Equity | 20.38B | 20.75B | 15.29B | 11.11B | 6.58B | 3.89B |
Cash Flow | ||||||
| Free Cash Flow | 3.92B | 3.84B | 2.88B | 1.14B | -2.00M | 16.00M |
| Operating Cash Flow | 8.40B | 8.34B | 8.03B | 6.46B | 6.36B | 3.26B |
| Investing Cash Flow | -4.22B | -4.19B | -3.74B | -3.15B | -6.92B | -897.00M |
| Financing Cash Flow | -2.88B | -3.08B | -4.26B | -3.39B | -4.54B | -3.85B |
Delta Air Lines Technical Analysis
Positive
71.72
Price Trends
66.66
Positive
67.50
Positive
62.44
Positive
Market Momentum
1.52
Negative
61.06
Neutral
65.98
Neutral
Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For DAL, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 71.72 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 67.37, above the 50-day MA of 66.66, and above the 200-day MA of 62.44, indicating a bullish trend. The MACD of 1.52 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 61.06 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 65.98 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for DAL.
Delta Air Lines Risk Analysis
Delta Air Lines disclosed 2 risk factors in its most recent earnings report. Delta Air Lines reported the most risks in the "Tech & Innovation" category.
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
Latest Risks Added 1 New Risks
1.
Failure of the technology we use to perform effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business. Q3, 2024
Delta Air Lines Peers Comparison
UnderperformOutperform
Sector (63)
Name | Overall Rating | Market Cap | P/E Ratio | ROE | Dividend Yield | Revenue Growth | EPS Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
77 Outperform | $13.46B | 10.91 | 135.39% | 3.50% | 11.93% | 54.06% | |
72 Outperform | $44.81B | -37.50 | 23.14% | 0.96% | 5.24% | 20.93% | |
71 Outperform | $29.83B | 10.76 | 24.91% | ― | 4.73% | 1.55% | |
63 Neutral | $10.79B | 15.43 | 7.44% | 2.01% | 2.89% | -14.66% | |
51 Neutral | $18.67B | 20.61 | 10.67% | 1.73% | 4.72% | 72.71% | |
50 Neutral | $7.72B | -4.65 | -5.17% | ― | 3.33% | -70.60% | |
47 Neutral | $4.58B | -5.45 | 1.85% | ― | 13.94% | -79.71% |
* Industrials Sector Average
DAL
Delta Air Lines
67.22
26.10
63.45%
ALK
Alaska Air
39.79
-4.48
-10.12%
LUV
Southwest Airlines
38.01
10.60
38.69%
UAL
United Airlines Holdings
90.41
21.59
31.37%
AAL
American Airlines
11.64
1.69
16.98%
LTM
LATAM Airlines Group SA Sponsored ADR
48.50
17.58
56.86%
Delta Air Lines Corporate Events
Business Operations and StrategyFinancial Disclosures
Delta Air Lines Raises Q1 Outlook, Highlights Financial Strength
Positive
Mar 17, 2026
On March 17, 2026, Delta executives presented at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference, highlighting that they had raised first-quarter 2026 revenue guidance on the back of accelerating consumer and corporate demand, with strength across main cab...
Business Operations and StrategyExecutive/Board Changes
Delta Air Lines Announces Major Executive Leadership Reshuffle
Positive
Mar 5, 2026
Delta Air Lines announced a wide-ranging leadership reshuffle, including the planned retirement of longtime operations chief John Laughter, who will step down as Executive Vice President, Chief of Operations and President of Delta TechOps effectiv...
Business Operations and Strategy
Delta Air Lines signs major Airbus widebody fleet deal
Positive
Jan 27, 2026
On January 27, 2026, Delta Air Lines entered into a definitive agreement with Airbus to purchase 16 Airbus A330-900 and 15 Airbus A350-900 widebody aircraft, with options for up to 20 additional widebodies, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 20...
Business Operations and StrategyFinancial DisclosuresPrivate Placements and Financing
Delta Air Lines Orders Boeing 787s, Posts Record Results
Positive
Jan 13, 2026
On January 12, 2026, Delta Air Lines agreed to purchase 30 Boeing 787-10 aircraft powered by GEnx engines, with options for 30 more, with deliveries starting in 2031; the order fits within the carrier’s existing capital expenditure and capac...
Glossary
BuyA stock rated as a "Buy" is expected to perform better than the overall market or a specific benchmark over the near-to-medium term. This rating suggests the stock is likely to deliver higher returns compared to other stocks in the same sector or market index. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
HoldA stock rated as a "Hold" is expected to perform in line with the overall market or a specific benchmark. This rating indicates that the stock is neither particularly compelling nor unfavorable for investment. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
SellA stock rated as a "Sell" is expected to perform worse than the overall market or a specific benchmark over the near-to-medium term. This rating suggests the stock may deliver lower returns compared to other stocks in the same sector or market index. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Disclaimer
This AI Analyst Stock Report is automatically generated by our AI systems using advanced algorithms and publicly available financial, technical, and market data. While the information provided aims to be accurate and insightful, it is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Any content created by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system may contain inaccuracies and/or contain errors. Investing in stocks carries inherent risks, and past performance is not indicative of future results. This report does not account for your personal financial circumstances, objectives, or risk tolerance. Always conduct your own research or consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. The analysis and recommendations provided are based on historical and current data and may not fully reflect future market conditions or unexpected developments. Neither the creators of this report nor its affiliated entities guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. Use this report at your own discretion and risk.