Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on DAL. Citigroup cut their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $77.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $76.29.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

NYSE:DAL opened at $46.21 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company has a 50-day moving average of $59.38 and a 200-day moving average of $58.18. Delta Air Lines has a twelve month low of $37.29 and a twelve month high of $69.98. The firm has a market cap of $29.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.20 billion. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 30.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.28 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is currently 11.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Delta Air Lines

In related news, EVP Rahul D. Samant sold 38,023 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.89, for a total transaction of $2,467,312.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 52,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,425,478.21. The trade was a 41.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.02, for a total value of $554,568.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,304,291.12. This represents a 29.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 162,886 shares of company stock worth $11,116,463 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Boston Partners bought a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the 4th quarter valued at $328,398,000. Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 3rd quarter worth about $189,296,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter worth about $152,342,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 405.3% during the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 3,054,285 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $184,784,000 after buying an additional 2,449,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,955,818 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $602,327,000 after buying an additional 2,254,560 shares during the period. 69.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines, Inc provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Sao Paulo, Seoul-Incheon, and Tokyo.