- GRIT
- Posts
- 👉 Delta Air Lines is Printing Cash
Together with Money Pickle
👉 Week in Review — Too Long; Didn’t Read:
Key Earnings Announcements:
Delta Air Lines’ free cash flow yield climbed to 7.5%.
Levi Strauss’ DTC business grew for the 13th consecutive quarter.
Helen of Troy’s organic sales fell -17% during the quarter.
Investor Events & Global Affairs:
Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $119,000.
Trump announced 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico.
Hims & Hers is expanding to Canada in 2026.
Major Economic Events:
Fed Chair Jerome Powell might resign.
FOMC minutes revealed a conflicted Fed.
Jobless claims remain at a healthy level.
Happy Sunday.
Before we get started, we wanted to offer a warm welcome to the +1,024 new subscribers who joined us this week!
In case you’re new around here, I’m Austin Hankwitz — I’ve been publishing earnings analysis on publicly-traded companies for over half a decade. My podcast, Rich Habits, has hit #1 on Spotify’s Business Podcast chart four times since it’s inception only two years ago.
At the start of 2023, I began my journey of building a $2M Dividend Growth Portfolio from scratch. This twice-weekly newsletter is how I keep you all updated on my progress.
For me, early retirement means $2M invested. For you, it might mean something else. Regardless of your early-retirement number — I hope these weekly synopses of my portfolio progress + what’s been happening in the markets helps you on your own journey.
Every Sunday, we publish the internet’s best summary of what happened in the markets the week prior — earnings analysis, acquisition announcements, economic data, world news, and more.
If you want full access to that info, my portfolio, legendary investor portfolios, livestreams, resources, and more — click here!
From retirement planning to tax strategy, your financial world is more than just investments. That’s why we’ve partnered with Money Pickle — to connect our readers with fiduciary financial advisors for a no-cost strategy session that could be the start of something long term.
✅ Get a second opinion on your current financial plan
✅ Explore strategies tailored to your goals
✅ Meet with an advisor you might actually want to keep working with
Whether you walk away with fresh insight or find the right long-term partner, it’s a smart step forward.
👉 Portfolio Updates (YTD Performance):
As you can see above, I’ve been beefing up the “Long Risky” subsection of my portfolio over the last few weeks. As a reminder, this subsection of my stock portfolio is primarily focused on high-octane growth stocks — companies like Cloudflare, Crowdstrike, Hims & Hers Health, and more.
I firmly believe that over the coming quarters we’ll see meaningful rate cuts — causing these high-octane growth stocks’ valuation multiples to expand dramatically. Additionally, I believe there’s a handful of names in this subsection who are operating in what we like to call “AI 2.0.” The first “AI wave” we experienced was hardware driven — Broadcom, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices. This new second “AI wave” we’re currently experiencing is software driven — Cloudflare’s Workers AI, Crowdstrike’s Falcon, and Monday.com’s Work OS.
These names have a long way to go — very bullish on this subsection of my portfolio in the long-term.
Excited to see the NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF experience a rally! As you all know, the goal is to have $100K invested into NEOS ETFs by the end of the year.
Speaking of Bitcoin — we’re on the road to $125K! Excited to see this continue to trend higher over the coming months and quarters.
For now, I’m focused on dollar cost averaging into some of these clear AI 2.0 winners, NEOS funds, and other long-term winners in my portfolio. I should be able to deploy another ~$200K toward these names over the next several months. Excited!
Want to see every position inside my stock and crypto portfolio?
Click here to become a Premium subscriber for $31 / month. You’ll also unlock access to our monthly livestreams, GRIT Guides on Investing, and more.
👉 Key Earnings Announcements:
Delta Air Lines’ free cash flow yield climbed to 7.5%, Levi Strauss’ DTC business grew for the 13th consecutive quarter, and Helen of Troy’s organic sales fell -17% during the quarter.
Delta Air Lines (DAL)
Key Metrics
Operating Income: $2.1 billion, compared to $2.3 billion last year
Profits: $2.1 billion, an increase of +63% YoY
Earnings Release Callout
“Delta generated record June quarter revenue of $15.5 billion, approximately 1 percent higher than prior year. Through the quarter, demand trends stabilized at levels that are flat to last year and we continued to see resilience in our diverse, high-margin revenue streams. The team did a great job leveraging Delta's structural advantages to optimize performance in this environment.”
My Takeaway
Delta’s full year outlook shared by their management team came in well-ahead of Wall Street’s expectations. This upside was driven by continued strength in “premium” revenues with less of an inflection on more price sensitive “main cabin” revenue growth. This dynamic could meaningfully differentiate Delta’s outlook from other airlines this earnings season.
During the quarter, Delta’s business and premium cabin revenues grew +4.7% compared to a -5.5% decline in main cabin revenues. This double-digit percentage point difference accelerated by +2.2% last quarter and +4.8% the quarter before that. This “premium revenue” has allowed Delta to boost their pre-tax margins over the last several quarters — translating into more free cash flow.
The company’s 7.5% free cash flow yield is nearly double its next closest competitor. Management has been very consistent with its messaging post-pandemic that this free cash flow will go towards reducing debt with steady improvement to their dividend.
Buybacks do not seem to be a large part of the capital allocation plan with the $1B authorization likely to be used over the coming 3-4 years. Instead, Wall Street is excited to see the company’s net leverage go from 2.0X to 1.0X by 2027.
As you all know, I’m not someone who invests in airline stocks — too much unpredictability and volatility. With that being said, if I were to be a buyer of this industry, Delta Air Lines is the company I’d be buying.
No shares.
Levi Strauss (LEVI)
Key Metrics
Revenue: $1.4 billion, an increase of +6% YoY
Operating Income: $108.0 million, an increase of +416% YoY
Profits: $67.0 million, an increase of +272% YoY
Earnings Release Callout
“We delivered another strong quarter, reflecting broad-based strength across the board—clear evidence that our strategic agenda is gaining traction. We’re entering the second half of 2025 from a position of strength as our ambition to transform into a denim lifestyle brand and best-in-class DTC retailer becomes our reality.
Given our strong H1 and continued momentum across the business—and despite higher tariffs—we are raising our full-year revenue and EPS expectations. The continued inflection of our financial performance is a direct result of our laser focus on the core Levi’s® brand and our DTC-first strategy. We are fundamentally becoming a company with a higher growth rate, higher margin profile, stronger cash flows and higher returns on invested capital.”
My Takeaway
Levi Strauss delivered an earning beat on both the top line and EBITDA, with broad-based growth across all segments and channels. The company posted high-single-digit organic net revenue growth, up +9% YoY. Their DTC business segment was up +10% for the thirteenth consecutive quarter of positive growth, while wholesale grew by +7% organically. Two thirds of revenue growth was driven by higher volume, while the other one third was driven by higher prices.
The company raised their 2025 top- and bottom-line guidance, now inclusive of tariffs. Gross margins expanded, benefitting from lower costs, lower promotions, and higher full-price sales. Additionally, their EBIT benefitted from SG&A leverage — growing to an 8.3% margin. The company plans to grow this specific margin profile to 15% over time.
The company also increased their dividend by +8% to $0.14 per share, and affirmed their plans to return at least $100M to shareholders in the form of share repurchases.
Very interesting company. At an $8.6B valuation, they’re trading at roughly 9X forward EBITDA expectations and 15.5X 2026 EPS. Considering the nature of the business, this isn’t something I’m interested in at the moment — but it proves there’s money to be made outside of AI and tech, that’s for sure.
No shares.
Helen of Troy (HELE)
Subscribe to GRIT Premium to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of GRIT Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.
A subscription gets you:
- • WEEK IN REVIEW: Full access to the internet's best recap of the markets, every single week. This includes comprehensive earnings breakdowns, portfolio updates, and more. This is the perfect compliment to the "Investing Week Ahead" post that you already receive at the beginning of each week.
- • MONTHLY LIVESTREAMS: Join Austin Hankwitz live every month to dive deep into his portfolio, explore the latest trends, discuss any changes he’s making, and cover market-moving topics.
- • PORTFOLIO ACCESS – Austin Hankwitz, Warren Buffett, Bill Ackman, and other professional / billionaire investor portfolios.
- • MONTHLY STOCK DEEP DIVES – Comprehensive stock analysis on an individual ticker, delivered at the end of each month.
- • RESOURCES – A wide variety of investment resources for both beginners and advanced investors to accelerate your portfolio.