Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) Shares Purchased by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its holdings in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 19.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 58,509 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 9,470 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $3,540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Hemington Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 474 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 target price on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.22.

Insider Activity

In other Delta Air Lines news, EVP Rahul D. Samant sold 17,970 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total value of $1,241,367.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 35,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,479,212.12. The trade was a 33.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,756 shares in the company, valued at $1,304,291.12. This trade represents a 29.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 162,886 shares of company stock worth $11,116,463. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Delta Air Lines Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:DAL opened at $65.04 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $42.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.36. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a one year low of $37.29 and a one year high of $69.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.37. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.11.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 30.41% and a net margin of 5.61%. The company had revenue of $15.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.28 EPS. Delta Air Lines’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is currently 11.26%.

Delta Air Lines 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.