DL expects 70% rise in yearly pretax profit this year---article

[dalad]

Ummmm, 6-7% of W2 is the rumor I'm hearing, beating last year's 4.5%. I'd say that's pretty darn good....


Bye Bye---General Lee

Mine was 6.5% of W-2 last year.

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

I wouldn't worry too much about it, like you said it's going to get better, I'm sure of it! Unfortunately not everyone has the financial evaluation skills that you do.

Delta's financial position is getting worse not better. The growth of the company's off-balance-sheet liabilities is larger than the reduction in the company's on-balance-sheet debt.
Most of the off-balance-sheet liabilities are related to employee benefits, which have a senior claim to the company's cash flows over any debt. Here's the scoop: DAL boosted its 2011 earnings by increasing its expected return on plan assets (EROPA) assumption for its pensions to 8.93%, up from 8.82% in 2010. Page 78 in DAL's 2012 10-K filing has the details. For readers who wonder whether 8.93% is abnormally high, the answer is yes. Out of the 1,021 companies with pensions that I cover, 98% of them have a lower EROPA. Only 96 of the 1,021 raised their EROPAs in 2012 while 525 lowered and 400 made no changes. In other words, DAL's EROPA assumption is not only among the highest but it is also rising when the majority is falling. Assuming such a high EROPA lowers the amount of money that DAL has to pay into its pensions, which lowers the company's overall expenses and increases accounting earnings. One could argue that stretching the limits of EROPA and minimizing the amount of money it pays into its pensions is a fair and good strategy for a company whose pensions were adequately funded. That argument does not hold water for Delta as its pensions were under-funded by $14.1 billion

In Over Their Heads

These companies have pension liabilities that equal or exceed their market value. Below, each firm's liability as a percentage of market cap.
AK Steel 917%
Unisys 562
Resolute Forest Products 516
United States Steel 439
Exelis 228
Navistar International 196
Alcoa 179
Goddyear Tire and Rubber 174
Huntington Ingalls Industries 174
General Motors 173
RR Donnelley & Sons 171
J.C. Penney 148
Northrop Grumman 142
Lockheed Martin 133
Delta Air Lines 132
Sears Holdings 118
Raytheon 116
ALLEGHENY Technologies 105
Textron 100
Boeing 100

Market capitalization data as of July 5, 2013.

http://online.barrons.com/article/S...578573313679938382.html#articleTabs_article=1

You are a clown....paying down debt, paying cash for jets, paying a dividend, paying hundreds of millions in profit sharing and you, the FI wizard thinks Delta's financials are getting worse?

You have zero knowledge of anything going on over here Cramer....
Go to a SWA board and circle jerk all your Herb turd friends.

Btw, is your pension funded? Oh that's right, it's PLANE NUTS to have one there!

 

[slaquer5]

GL you do realize that for all your cheer leading DAL isn't go to even remember your name 5 minutes after you walk off the property? How'd that unyielding loyalty work out in bankruptcy?

You do relize , GL is not even a pilot , let a lone , a pilot for. DAL


GL is an angery women ,who got scorned by some SWA pilot years ago .

 

[Mercyful Fate]

You do relize , GL is not even a pilot , let a lone , a pilot for. DAL


GL is an angery women ,who got scorned by some SWA pilot years ago .

Genital is a parrot that blabs things he reads on airliners.net....Amazing how many people here have bought into his pretend world

 

[General Lee]

You do relize , GL is not even a pilot , let a lone , a pilot for. DAL


GL is an angery women ,who got scorned by some SWA pilot years ago .

In your dreams! Quit dreaming that, btw. You are gross! And, you had great usage of punctuation above. Well. Done. Sir.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

Genital is a parrot that blabs things he reads on airliners.net....Amazing how many people here have bought into his pretend world

Forest Dump, King of the Minot lav dumpers returns! And again, he has nothing to contribute.... Yet again... Hey watch it, that Allegiant MD83 from Sanford is inbound with plenty of stuff for you to dump. Where's your pal Freebrd?


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

Mine was 6.5% of W-2 last year.

John,

You may actually be correct. I took the gross, subtracted the profit sharing and monthly "shared rewards" payments ($1200?), and got about what you stated. Hopefully this year's (next Feb 14th) will be even higher.


Bye Bye----General Lee

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

It will be GL.....2.6 Billion mark reached announced by Ed yesterday.

But then again, 737 Chimp Howard Borden says we are losing money so believe the all-knowing village idiot if you want.

 

[redflyer65]

Losing money? No.

Massive Debt? Yes.

 

[General Lee]

December 12, 2013 1:55 PM ET
Delta Air Lines: Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?
By Ben Levisohn
Delta Air Lines (DAL) has gained 133% so far this year, but that hasn?t stopped the folks at Barclays from putting it "at the top of [its] airlines list for 2014."

Bloomberg News

Sure that gain is huge, both on its own terms and relative to its competitors. Delta has outgained nearly all its peers, as Southwest Airlines (LUV) has gained 82% in 2013, Alaska Air (ALK) has risen 68% and United Continental (UAL) is up 61%. Spirit Airlines (SAVE), with a 144% rise, was one of the few airlines to trump Delta.


So why is Barclays still bullish? David Fintzen and team explain why they left Delta's investor meeting yesterday feeling optimistic:

The focus was rightfully on the "sustainability" question that we think remains central to the long-term upside in DAL shares. Specifically, a long-term operating margin target of 10-12% was encouraging, but also strikes us as realistic given the initiatives (re-fleeting, etc) underway. Secondly, we were encouraged by comments that margin improvement can still come from the ?core? of the network, not just the outliers. It's hard for us to quantify, but setting a high threshold (i.e. not simply accepting an 8% margin) in a route/city/hub strikes us as a seemingly simple mindset change that matters (and needs to become engrained in the industry).

On the cost side, similarly, multiple comments around "restoring balance to the supply chain" strike us as similarly hard to quantify, but indicative of an expectation to push margins higher.


Delta has gained 1.9% to $28.19 today at 1:48 p.m., while United Continental has risen 3.4% to $37.83, Spirit Airlines has advanced 2.2% to $43.32, and Southwest, which was upgraded by Merrill Lynch today, has jumped 3.6% to $18.62. Alaska Air has dropped 1.3% to $72.49.


And Red said SWA did better stock wise? Yeah, right....



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Losing money? No.

Massive Debt? Yes.

17.5 Billion debt load immediately after the merger....
going to be 7.5 Billion at the end of 2014.....
It would be fair to say that we are moving in the right direction. 10B paid off in 4 years....

Go ahead and poke holes in it.

 

[HowardBorden]

17.5 Billion debt load immediately after the merger....
going to be 7.5 Billion at the end of 2014.....
It would be fair to say that we are moving in the right direction. 10B paid off in 4 years....

Go ahead and poke holes in it.

OK.

It's the "OFF BALANCE SHEET" debt that is the problem you moron! Delta is boosting its earnings by increasing its expected return on plan assets for its pensions. Currently it is 8.93% up from 8.82% in 2010 which is abnormally high and it is rising while the vast majority of others are falling. Assuming such a high EROPA lowers the amount of money that Delta has to pay into its pensions, lowering the company's expenses and increasing accounting earnings. Delta has pension obligations that exceed their market value by 132%. The problem is entirely fixable, but raising EROPA is worsening the problem not helping it. As of December 31, 2012, Delta's defined benefit pension plans had an estimated benefit obligation of $21.5 billion and were funded through assets with a value of $8.2 billion. Since I'm assuming your math skills are as poor as your ability to read a balance sheet, that is a difference of $13.3 billion of OFF BALANCE SHEET liabilities.

If you don't know how to read a balance sheet that is not my problem. If you want to stick your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening, by all means go right ahead just don't expect me to follow your lead. You clearly have a very active fantasy life and that obviously works for you.

 

[General Lee]

OK.

It's the "OFF BALANCE SHEET" debt that is the problem you moron! Delta is boosting its earnings by increasing its expected return on plan assets for its pensions. Currently it is 8.93% up from 8.82% in 2010 which is abnormally high and it is rising while the vast majority of others are falling. Assuming such a high EROPA lowers the amount of money that Delta has to pay into its pensions, lowering the company's expenses and increasing accounting earnings. Delta has pension obligations that exceed their market value by 132%. The problem is entirely fixable, but raising EROPA is worsening the problem not helping it. As of December 31, 2012, Delta's defined benefit pension plans had an estimated benefit obligation of $21.5j billion and were funded through assets with a value of $8.2 billion. Since I'm assuming your math skills are as poor as your ability to read a balance sheet, that is a difference of $13.3 billion of OFF BALANCE SHEET liabilities.

If you don't know how to read a balance sheet that is not my problem. If you want to stick your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening, by all means go right ahead just don't expect me to follow your lead. You clearly have a very active fantasy life and that obviously works for you.

There he goes again, "Geraldo" looking for Capone's Vault.... I'm so glad you've figured it all out, and Wall St. has it wrong! Every investor, analyst, and DL fan has it wrong, cause Howie has determined that DL will sink again...

In reality, DL makes twice the profit that your airline does, has paid off over $10 billion in debt in 4 years, and at this rate will pay off all debt and pension deficits within ten more years. Howie, stick to six legs a day ending in Harlingen, and keep dreaming...


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Moron?

Big tough guy behind a keyboard huh?

It's good to debate with someone who knows nothing and makes himself look like the great and powerful Oz with his "off balance sheet" smoke and mirrors. I guess all the "morons" on Wall Street disagree with your stupid comments on an anonymous board...got a look at our stock chart lately?

Tell you what, you earned an ignore from me....too bad your interview didn't go well over here.....

 

[HowardBorden]

tell you what, you earned an ignore from me....

oh the horror!!!

 

[General Lee]

oh the horror!!!

Wow, I thought I was the only one making people use the ignore function. Don't worry Howie, I won't put you on ignore, I enjoy beating you easily in debates. And there is always the LBB fallback that continually brings a smile to my face and a hearty guffaw. Enjoy it Howie, enjoy it.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[HowardBorden]

Don't worry Howie, I won't put you on ignore, I enjoy beating you easily in debates.

Yes Glee, you're a master debater! If you don't want to listen to me, listen to Mother Delta:

"Our substantial indebtedness may limit our financial and operating activities and may adversely affect our ability to incur additional debt to fund future needs. We have substantial indebtedness...."

http://www.delta.com/content/dam/del...s_10K_2012.pdf

 

[KarmaPolice]

oh the horror!!!

I'm just Fuc*ing amazed you criticize a US company for having Pension debt towards your neighbors. Seriously. What is wrong with you?

You went to work for a company that literally destroyed pensions industry-wide, among other benefits for your peers. THEN you come online and act like an internet tough guy, bragging and finger pointing that another company still has to honor those agreements? WHY? What does it do for you in your life to act like this? I don't know if I'm more disgusted or amazed that you exist.

 

[canyonblue]

Go to a SWA board and circle jerk all your Herb turd friends.

This is a SWA board you d0uche, exactly why you clowns listen to us.

 

[HowardBorden]

I'm just Fuc*ing amazed you criticize a US company for having Pension debt towards your neighbors. Seriously. What is wrong with you?

You went to work for a company that literally destroyed pensions industry-wide, among other benefits for your peers. THEN you come online and act like an internet tough guy, bragging and finger pointing that another company still has to honor those agreements? WHY? What does it do for you in your life to act like this? I don't know if I'm more disgusted or amazed that you exist.

I'm not criticizing pensions or pension debt, I'm criticizing not adequately funding the obligation during the time of record profits. Maybe 2013 will show a change in the EROPA and big D will go forward instead of backward with regard to pension liabilities.

You're right though sometimes I get a little wrapped around the axle reading the Glee sunshine parade all while taking a dump on my airline. I should just let it go and I will attempt to do that in the future.