Inspire Investing LLC Decreases Position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Inspire Investing LLC cut its position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,662 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 4,488 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $827,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of DAL. Pzena Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the third quarter valued at approximately $281,206,000. Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the third quarter valued at approximately $189,296,000. Sanders Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.8% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 27,841,592 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,414,074,000 after purchasing an additional 749,099 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 419.5% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 562,129 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,551,000 after purchasing an additional 453,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,501,936 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $789,452,000 after purchasing an additional 416,338 shares during the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DAL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.22.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DAL opened at $67.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.37. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.04. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.29 and a fifty-two week high of $69.98. The firm has a market cap of $43.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.59, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.35.

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. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 30.43%. The firm had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.20 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.28 earnings per share. Delta Air Lines’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP William C. Carroll sold 21,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.62, for a total transaction of $1,305,148.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 19,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,197,608.72. This represents a 52.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 68,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were 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 directly owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,775,004.27. The trade was a 13.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 217,429 shares of company stock worth $13,755,259. 0.96% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.