Global airline Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) will be announcing earnings results this Thursday before market open. Here’s what investors should know.

Delta beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.5% last quarter, reporting revenues of $16.65 billion, flat year on year. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. It reported 66.42 billion revenue passenger miles, up 1.8% year on year.

Is Delta a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Delta’s revenue to grow 2.4% year on year to $16.05 billion, improving from the 1.2% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.52 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Delta has only missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates once over the last two years, exceeding top-line expectations by 2% on average.

Looking at Delta’s peers in the consumer discretionary segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Carnival delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 3.3%, beating analysts’ expectations by 0.5%, and Nike reported revenues up 1.1%, topping estimates by 6.5%. Carnival traded down 5.6% following the results while Nike was up 6.5%.

Read our full analysis of Carnival’s results here and Nike’s results here.

The euphoria surrounding Trump’s November win lit a fire under major indices, but potential tariffs have caused the market to do a 180 in 2025. While some of the consumer discretionary stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 3.5% on average over the last month. Delta is down 8.3% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $70.46 (compared to the current share price of $56.66).

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