Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Decreases Stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lessened its holdings in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 15.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 76,148 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 13,909 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $3,612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Delta Air Lines by 0.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,030,836 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $719,526,000 after purchasing an additional 49,712 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,933,785 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $471,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,674 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 220.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position 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 valued at $260,198,000 after buying an additional 1,376,221 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 6.3% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 3,528,883 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $168,928,000 after buying an additional 208,436 shares during the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $61.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Delta Air Lines to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $61.83.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

Shares of DAL opened at $47.44 on Friday. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.60 and a 52-week high of $53.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.67. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $30.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.35.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 11th. The transportation company reported $2.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.37 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $15.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.45 billion. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 36.02% and a net margin of 7.46%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.68 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.63%.

Insider Activity at Delta Air Lines

In other Delta Air Lines news, Director Willie Cw Chiang purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $43.90 per share, with a total value of $439,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $878,000. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.