Barclays Cuts Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Price Target to $80.00

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) had its price objective lowered by Barclays from $90.00 to $80.00 in a research report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the transportation company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective 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. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $83.00 price target on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $76.60.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

DAL stock opened at $43.83 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $62.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.80. The company has a market capitalization of $28.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.22, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34. Delta Air Lines has a 52-week low of $37.29 and a 52-week high of $69.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.37.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.28 earnings per share. Delta Air Lines’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is 11.26%.

Insider Activity at Delta Air Lines

In other news, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.02, for a total value of $554,568.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,304,291.12. This represents a 29.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total transaction of $6,405,943.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at $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 in the last three months. 0.96% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DAL. KBC Group NV raised its stake in Delta Air Lines by 143.7% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 56,611 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,876,000 after acquiring an additional 33,378 shares during the period. Donoghue Forlines LLC purchased a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the fourth quarter worth about $2,036,000. New Millennium Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 314.0% during the third quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 36,460 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,852,000 after buying an additional 27,654 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,501,936 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $789,452,000 after buying an additional 416,338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the third quarter valued at about $189,296,000. Institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

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.