Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Increases Stock Position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 5.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 161,395 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,034 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $7,037,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,410,242 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,380,820,000 after buying an additional 456,465 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 29,764,524 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,800,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,932 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,912,584 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $968,234,000 after purchasing an additional 410,648 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,180,467 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $918,419,000 after purchasing an additional 46,101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,090,209 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $670,994,000 after purchasing an additional 92,208 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DAL. Barclays lowered their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective (down previously from $85.00) on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $62.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen raised their price target on Delta Air Lines from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $60.00 target price on shares of Delta Air Lines and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.67.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DAL opened at $47.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $30.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.51. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.74 and a 1-year high of $69.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $46.63 and its 200 day moving average is $53.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 9th. The transportation company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.84 by ($0.38). The business had revenue of $12.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.85 billion. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 28.18% and a net margin of 5.91%. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a $0.1875 dividend. This represents a $0.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 31st. This is a boost from Delta Air Lines’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.64%.

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.