The Goldman Sachs Group Cuts Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Price Target to $60.00

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) had its target price lowered by The Goldman Sachs Group from $83.00 to $60.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the transportation company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on DAL. Barclays decreased their target price on Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Raymond James decreased their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their price target on Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $77.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.49.

Delta Air Lines Stock Down 4.1 %

DAL opened at $37.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.00 billion, a PE ratio of 6.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. Delta Air Lines has a 52 week low of $34.74 and a 52 week high of $69.98.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $15.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.20 billion. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 30.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. Analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis 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

In other news, EVP Rahul D. Samant sold 38,023 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.89, for a total value of $2,467,312.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 52,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,425,478.21. The trade was a 41.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total value of $6,405,943.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,721,357.15. This represents a 17.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 162,886 shares of company stock worth $11,116,463 over the last three months. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Delta Air Lines

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Hemington Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 474 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 414.4% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 535 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

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.