Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Receives “Hold” Rating from Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group restated their hold rating on shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) in a report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $46.00 price target on the transportation company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $85.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on DAL. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Delta Air Lines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.29.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

DAL opened at $42.38 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.36. Delta Air Lines has a 52-week low of $37.29 and a 52-week high of $69.98. 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 market capitalization of $27.40 billion, a PE ratio of 7.95, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last posted its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $15.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is 11.26%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.02, for a total value of $554,568.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,304,291.12. The trade was a 29.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Rahul D. Samant sold 17,970 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total value of $1,241,367.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 35,889 shares in the company, valued at $2,479,212.12. This represents a 33.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 162,886 shares of company stock valued at $11,116,463. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Delta Air Lines by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,410,242 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,380,820,000 after buying an additional 456,465 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 29,764,524 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,800,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,922,932 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,912,584 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $968,234,000 after acquiring an additional 410,648 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in 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 valued at $918,419,000 after acquiring an additional 46,101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Delta Air Lines Company 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.