Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) Reaches New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $69.73 and last traded at $69.37, with a volume of 140886 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $68.34.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DAL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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, October 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $83.00 price target on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.22.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.35.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $15.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.20 billion. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 30.43%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.28 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Delta Air Lines

In other news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 68,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.33, for a total transaction of $3,830,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at $24,775,004.27. This represents a 13.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.02, for a total transaction of $554,568.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,304,291.12. The trade was a 29.83 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 125,719 shares of company stock worth $7,349,316 in the last quarter. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DAL. Pzena Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Delta Air Lines in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $281,206,000. Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the third quarter worth about $189,296,000. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 27,841,592 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,414,074,000 after purchasing an additional 749,099 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 419.5% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 562,129 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,551,000 after purchasing an additional 453,926 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Delta Air Lines by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,501,936 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $789,452,000 after purchasing an additional 416,338 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.