Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Takes Position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 605 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 11.1% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 336,176 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $16,093,000 after purchasing an additional 33,646 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 499,689 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $23,920,000 after buying an additional 76,594 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 73.4% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 8,952 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $429,000 after buying an additional 3,788 shares in the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 5,772 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 4.9% in the first quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 24,781 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,161 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In related news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 68,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.33, for a total transaction of $3,830,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at $24,775,004.27. This represents a 13.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Joanne D. Smith sold 3,431 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.46, for a total value of $173,128.26. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 108,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,499,635.40. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 140,240 shares of company stock worth $8,044,893 over the last three months. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

Shares of Delta Air Lines stock opened at $64.84 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $41.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.28 and a twelve month high of $66.25. The company’s fifty day moving average is $52.17 and its 200 day moving average is $48.51.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 10th. The transportation company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.52 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $15.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.65 billion. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.71% and a return on equity of 29.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.03 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.07 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on DAL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Delta Air Lines from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas raised Delta Air Lines to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.23.

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.