Delta Air Lines (DAL) latest financial results have missed Wall Street targets across the board.
The Atlanta-based carrier reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.50 U.S., which fell short of the $1.52 U.S. expected among analysts.
Revenue for this year’s third quarter totaled $14.59 billion U.S., which missed a consensus forecast of $14.67 billion U.S.
Delta blamed the poor Q3 results on the information technology outage caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) software this past July.
Management at Delta said that the CrowdStrike outage amounted to a $0.45 U.S. hit to its earnings.
The outage caused Delta to cancel thousands of flights and cost the company $380 million U.S. in lost revenue. Delta is seeking compensation from CrowdStrike for the outage.
Looking ahead, Delta said that it expects to grow earnings in the fourth quarter of this year due to strong travel demand and bookings around the year-end holidays.
Delta forecast fourth-quarter earnings of $1.60 U.S. to $1.85 U.S. per share, which is ahead of Wall Street estimates of $1.71 U.S.
Delta added that it still expects its full-year earnings to come in between $6 U.S. and $7 U.S. a share, excluding the CrowdStrike impact.
Revenue will likely rise 2% to 4% from a year earlier in the current fourth quarter, said Delta in its earnings release.
The stock of Delta Air Lines fell 5% immediately after the company’s Q3 financial results were made public. The company’s share price had risen 26% so far this year to trade at $50.98 U.S.
