Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Dbs Bank

Dbs Bank cut shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on DAL. Citigroup dropped their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Delta Air Lines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $46.00 price target (down from $85.00) on shares of Delta Air Lines in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.49.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

DAL opened at $37.13 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a PE ratio of 6.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.23. Delta Air Lines has a 1 year low of $34.74 and a 1 year high of $69.98. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 EPS 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 30.41%. The company had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.20 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.26%.

Insider Activity at Delta Air Lines

In other Delta Air Lines news, EVP Rahul D. Samant sold 38,023 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.02, for a total transaction of $554,568.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 19,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,304,291.12. This represents a 29.83 % 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 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Boston Partners bought a new position in Delta Air Lines during the fourth quarter worth about $328,398,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $152,342,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 405.3% during the 4th quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 3,054,285 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $184,784,000 after acquiring an additional 2,449,874 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,955,818 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $602,327,000 after purchasing an additional 2,254,560 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 29,764,524 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,800,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,932 shares in the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.