Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Shares Down 4.7% After Analyst Downgrade

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) shares dropped 4.7% during trading on Wednesday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $90.00 to $77.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Delta Air Lines traded as low as $45.21 and last traded at $44.50. Approximately 2,206,379 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 8,649,905 shares. The stock had previously closed at $46.68.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on DAL. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $83.00 target price on shares of Delta Air Lines in a report on Friday, November 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $76.60.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DAL. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Hemington Wealth Management boosted its position in Delta Air Lines by 48.1% during the 4th quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 474 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Crews Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Delta Air Lines during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. 69.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $28.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.22, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.80.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $15.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. 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, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is 11.26%.

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.