Park Avenue Securities LLC Acquires 661 Shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,238 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 661 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 220.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,600,741 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $346,008,000 after buying an additional 5,914,301 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 6,467,749 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $260,198,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376,221 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the second quarter worth $60,217,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 96.1% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 2,487,387 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $119,057,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,074 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 12.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,933,785 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $471,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,674 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Bank of America increased their price target on Delta Air Lines from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Delta Air Lines to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.40.

Delta Air Lines Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE:DAL opened at $51.33 on Friday. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.60 and a 52 week high of $53.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $44.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $46.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market cap of $33.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.35.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 10th. The transportation company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by ($0.02). Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.46% and a return on equity of 36.02%. The business had revenue of $15.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.03 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is currently 8.63%.

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.