Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $63.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $71.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $70.31.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

DAL stock opened at $58.68 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $58.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.70. The company has a market capitalization of $38.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.27, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.50. Delta Air Lines has a 52-week low of $34.74 and a 52-week high of $69.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.34 and a current ratio of 0.40.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 15th. The transportation company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.36% and a return on equity of 23.83%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 16th will be issued a $0.1875 dividend. This represents a $0.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 16th. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Delta Air Lines news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.28, for a total value of $1,969,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 632,823 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,615,278.44. This trade represents a 5.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $151,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 33,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,017,971.50. The trade was a 6.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 2.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 74,572,577 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,667,479,000 after purchasing an additional 1,648,071 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,059,848 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,134,083,000 after acquiring an additional 581,421 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 3.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,757,932 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $822,127,000 after acquiring an additional 527,570 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the second quarter worth about $386,364,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 30.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,242,852 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $315,788,000 after acquiring an additional 1,681,464 shares in the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.