Vestcor Inc Sells 2,195 Shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Vestcor Inc reduced its position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 59.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,472 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 2,195 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $89,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of DAL. Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines in the 3rd quarter worth $281,206,000. Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in Delta Air Lines during the 3rd quarter valued at $189,296,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter valued at $64,577,000. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 2.8% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 325.7% during the 4th quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 592,808 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $35,865,000 after acquiring an additional 453,547 shares in the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Delta Air Lines from $90.00 to $77.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Delta Air Lines from $80.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $76.29.

Delta Air Lines Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of DAL opened at $45.91 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $61.77 and a 200 day moving average of $58.14. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.29 and a fifty-two week high of $69.98. The firm has a market cap of $29.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.34. 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 (NYSE:DAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.20 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is presently 11.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Delta Air Lines

In other Delta Air Lines news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 17.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 6,783 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.94, for a total value of $447,271.02. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,016 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $660,455.04. The trade was a 40.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 162,886 shares of company stock valued at $11,116,463 in the last quarter. 0.96% of the stock is currently 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.