Is the business good?
How good a business is DAL?
Delta Air Lines earns 14% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
14%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 5.5 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 8.1%
Operating margin · Airlines median 6.3% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.85×
Cash conversion · 0.52× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- +0.92%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | −73% |
| FY2021 | 6.3% |
| FY2022 | 7.2% |
| FY2023 | 9.5% |
| FY2024 | 9.7% |
| FY2025 | 9.2% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 8.1%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 5.8%
- Free cash flow margin
- 4.9%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $68.3B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $3.35B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $3.95B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 14%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.