Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) CEO Sells $6,405,943.50 in Stock

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total value of $6,405,943.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 439,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,721,357.15. This represents a 17.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Delta Air Lines Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of DAL stock opened at $67.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.59, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.04. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.29 and a fifty-two week high of $69.98.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.20 billion. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 30.43% and a net margin of 5.61%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.28 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in 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 valued at $1,414,074,000 after acquiring an additional 749,099 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Delta Air Lines by 2.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 416,338 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the third quarter valued at approximately $281,206,000. Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the third quarter valued at approximately $189,296,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Delta Air Lines by 0.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,497,487 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $177,637,000 after acquiring an additional 10,332 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on DAL. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup increased their target price on Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.22.

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.