Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Increases Position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 1.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,394 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $1,369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Delta Air Lines by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,410,242 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,380,820,000 after acquiring an additional 456,465 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 29,764,524 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,800,754,000 after buying an additional 1,922,932 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,912,584 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $968,234,000 after buying an additional 410,648 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,180,467 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $918,419,000 after buying an additional 46,101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,090,209 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $670,994,000 after buying an additional 92,208 shares during the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

Shares of DAL opened at $56.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.33. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a one year low of $34.74 and a one year high of $69.98. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.04 billion, a PE ratio of 8.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.49.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 10th. The transportation company reported $2.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.24% and a return on equity of 24.86%. The business had revenue of $15,507,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.16 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.36 earnings per share. Delta Air Lines’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a $0.1875 dividend. This is a boost from Delta Air Lines’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is currently 10.64%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Dbs Bank cut Delta Air Lines from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $46.00 target price (down from $85.00) on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Delta Air Lines from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.69.

Delta Air Lines Profile

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.