What Analysts Think About Delta Air Lines Before Earnings

Key Takeaways

• Delta Air Lines will announce its first-quarter fiscal 2020 results before the opening bell on Wednesday, amid increasing economic uncertainty.
• Analysts are still largely bullish on Delta's stock, bit its shares have tumbled in recent weeks on increasing concerns about travel demand.
• Bank of America analysts expect Delta and other carriers to be conservative with their Q2 and full year forecasts.

Delta Air Lines is scheduled to release its first-quarter fiscal 2025 results before the opening bell on Wednesday, as analysts are becoming more cautious about air travel in light of rising economic uncertainty.

Visible Alpha’s analysts are still largely bullish about Delta’s stock. Nine of them have a “buy” rating and one has a “hold” recommendation. This is down from the 13 analysts who gave a “buy’ rating in the last quarter. The average price target for Delta also dropped to $67.30, from $76.85 before last quarter’s report.

Delta shares have fallen 46% from a high of $69.06 to $37.25 by Friday, a fall that includes an 11% drop on Thursday during the tariff-driven sell-off.

Visible Alpha projects that Delta will report adjusted earnings (EPS) for the March quarter of $0.41. This is a 4 cents decrease from last year on revenue of 13.90 billion dollars, an increase of 1%.

Analysts Expect a Challanging Earnings season Amid Uncertainty

Ed Bastian, CEO at Delta, said that the carrier expects consumer demand to continue until 2025. Delta and other carriers have lowered their forecasts because consumer sentiment has deteriorated in Q1.

"There is no place to hide from softening demand trends, and we expect a 1Q25 earnings season characterized by weak 2Q25 outlooks and lower 2025 earnings guidance," Bank of America analysts wrote Thursday. "The stocks have anticipated this, and we believe airlines should be conservative in outlooks given the uncertainty."

Analysts have cut their price targets for Delta from $65 to $56, and also for United Airlines (UAL), American Airlines (AAL), and other airlines. They expect Delta to start the quarterly earnings season with a lower full-year profit estimate, and other airlines may follow.