Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Boosts Stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc. $DAL

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,698 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 1,587 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $1,559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the second quarter worth approximately $386,364,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 5,224.6% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,336,709 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $189,081,000 after purchasing an additional 4,255,262 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 149.9% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,963,882 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $246,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,577,489 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 347.4% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,232,974 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $184,909,000 after purchasing an additional 3,286,741 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 1,469.9% in the first quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 3,309,020 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $144,273,000 after buying an additional 3,098,237 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Seaport Global Securities boosted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $69.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on Delta Air Lines from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Delta Air Lines from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $55.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $69.20 to $73.70 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty have issued a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $70.11.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

NYSE:DAL opened at $57.56 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.59 billion, a PE ratio of 8.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.50. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.74 and a fifty-two week high of $69.98. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 15th. The transportation company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.36% and a return on equity of 24.85%. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter. Analysts expect that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 16th. This represents a $0.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio is 10.56%.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In related news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 632,823 shares in the company, valued at $35,615,278.44. The trade was a 5.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $2,017,971.50. This represents a 6.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 91,050 shares of company stock worth $5,139,795 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.