1-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Delta Air Lines

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 125,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) has received the dreaded one-star ranking. Our data has shown that one-star stocks woefully lag the market average; conversely, five-star stocks outperform the S&P by a significant margin.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Delta's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Delta facts

Headquarters (founded)	Atlanta (1924)
Market Cap	$3.74 billion
Industry	Airlines
TTM Revenue	$20.67 billion
Management	CEO Richard Anderson (since Sep. 2007) CFO Hank Halter (since Nov. 2008)
Net Income Margin (average of last five years and TTM)	(24.4%) and (36.6%)
Competitors	AMR (NYSE: AMR) Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL)
CAPS members bearish on DAL also bearish on:	US Airways (NYSE: LCC) UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA)
CAPS members bullish on DAL also bullish on:	Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, 57.3% of the 192 All-Star members who have rated Delta believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These Fools include dexion10 and sandvig, both of whom are ranked in the top 5% of our community.

Early last month, dexion10 made this simple, commonsense bear case: "too many planes, too much debt, not enough passengers. insider selling."

In a pitch two weeks later, sandvig shared that bearishness, citing Delta's alarming red numbers as its biggest red flags. Here's an excerpt:

There are so many reasons to give this a thumbs down.

The "Profiles" tab reveals that it has a return on assets of -29.50%; it has a return on investments of -64%; its long term debt to equity ratio is 3.88, reflecting lots and lots of long term debt; it has negative cash flow.

They have a fleet of old planes that need to be upgraded. The last time I checked, new airplanes are expensive.

What do you think about Delta, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 125,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started. 

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