Delta Stock Struggles Despite a Rebound in Travel Demand

Delta Air Lines (DAL:US) reported weaker-than-expected results for its first quarter, however, shares still rose in pre-market Thursday trading on the back of the company’s better-than-expected guidance.

Delta reported a profit per share of $0.25, below the expected $0.29. Revenue came in at $12.8 billion, above the $12 billion the surveyed analysts were expecting. DAL said it saw its passenger revenue increase by over 51% year-over-year. Passenger load factor was reported at 81%, up from 75% YoY while revenue passenger.

As a result, Q2 profit is expected between $2 per share and $2.25 per share while the full-year EPS is seen in the $5-6 range. In contrast, analysts were looking for $1.61 and $5.37 per share, respectively.

Revenue is seen rising 15-17% while the operating margin is expected to increase 14-16% in the second quarter. Moreover, the company said it is experiencing record advance bookings for the summer. 

"Our revenues and earnings EPS were all in line with the guidance that we presented at the start of the quarter," Delta CEO Ed Bastian told Yahoo Finance. "So given all the uncertainty and some of the volatility that we see and what seasonally is our weakest quarter of the year, we were quite pleased and thought it was a real solid performance."

The latest earnings report comes after Congressman Daniel Goldman disclosed in February that he bought $15,000 - $50,000 worth of DAL shares on January 31 when they closed at $39.10.

Shares closed at $33.37 on Thursday, while witnessing a minor surge in share price, a jump of nearly 2.3% YTD.