Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) shares gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $43.60, but opened at $42.33. Delta Air Lines shares last traded at $41.30, with a volume of 3,561,434 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price target on Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Raymond James lowered their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Delta Air Lines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $46.00 target price (down from $85.00) on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research report on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $71.77.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $28.04 billion, a PE ratio of 8.14, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.20 billion. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 30.41% and a net margin of 5.61%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.28 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is 11.26%.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In other Delta Air Lines news, SVP William C. Carroll sold 6,783 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.94, for a total value of $447,271.02. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,016 shares in the company, valued at approximately $660,455.04. This trade represents a 40.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total transaction of $6,405,943.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,721,357.15. This trade represents a 17.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 162,886 shares of company stock valued at $11,116,463 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Delta Air Lines by 0.6% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its position in Delta Air Lines by 6.9% in 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 increased its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,912,584 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $968,234,000 after buying an additional 410,648 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,180,467 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $918,419,000 after acquiring an additional 46,101 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 92,208 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

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.