Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $76.29.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DAL. StockNews.com cut shares of Delta Air Lines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays cut 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. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup cut their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

NYSE:DAL opened at $48.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.37. Delta Air Lines has a 52-week low of $37.29 and a 52-week high of $69.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.46 billion, a PE ratio of 9.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34.

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

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.26%.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In other Delta Air Lines news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,721,357.15. The trade was a 17.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Rahul D. Samant sold 38,023 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.89, for a total transaction of $2,467,312.47. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 52,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,425,478.21. This represents a 41.87 % 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 worth $11,116,463 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 12.9% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 169,056 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $8,587,000 after buying an additional 19,350 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 478,900 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $24,323,000 after acquiring an additional 3,400 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Delta Air Lines during the 3rd quarter valued at $453,000. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its position in Delta Air Lines by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 56,926 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,891,000 after acquiring an additional 4,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 11,956 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $607,000 after buying an additional 1,559 shares during the period. 69.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.