Delta Air Lines posted triple-digit profit growth every quarter for the past year. Meanwhile, its revenue growth ranged from 36% to 94%. It's no surprise that on Tuesday the IBD SmartSelect Composite Rating for Delta stock jumped to a near-best 96, up from 94 the day before.
Delta Stock In Top 5% Overall
The new rating shows Delta stock is outpacing 96% of all stocks when it comes to the most important stock-picking criteria. IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings of fundamental and technical performance into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Delta reported strong results last quarter, although down from earlier sizzling reports. The company reported a 25-cent per share profit last quarter, reversing from a $1.23 per-share loss the same quarter a year ago, ostensibly a 120% rise. In the three quarters prior to last quarter it recorded EPS gains of 235%, 403% and 573%. Revenue last quarter grew 36% to $12.579 billion. The three stanzas before that it's sales grew 94%, 53% and 42%.
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For its other ratings, Delta Air Lines shows an 82 Earnings Per Share Rating, and a bullish A SMR Rating, (sales + profit margins + return on equity) a gauge of fundamentals, on an A-to-E scale with A tops. One yellow flag is its 56 Relative Strength Rating, which compares a stock to all other stocks. The 56 rating puts it in the top half of stocks for price performance. However, the best growth stocks tend to have an 80 or higher RS Rating.
Delta On the Rise, Still Below All-Time High
Delta stock closed at 36.28 Tuesday, up a little more than 1% for the day. It's up 17% from a March 24 low 31.04, and has more than doubled from a Covid flash-crash low 17.51 in March 2020. However, it has a ways to go to get back to its heyday. It rose to an all-time high 63.44 in July 2019.
Delta Air Lines holds the No. 3 rank among its peers in the Transportation-Airline industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. Panamanian airline Copa ranks No. 1. And United Airlines is No. 2 among the group's highest-rated stocks.
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