Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) Declares $0.15 Quarterly Dividend

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share by the transportation company on Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%.

Delta Air Lines has a dividend payout ratio of 7.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Delta Air Lines to earn $8.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.3%.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

NYSE DAL traded down $1.20 on Thursday, hitting $67.86. The company had a trading volume of 5,996,762 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,339,612. The company has a market capitalization of $43.79 billion, a PE ratio of 12.73, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.36. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $63.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.32. Delta Air Lines has a 12-month low of $37.29 and a 12-month high of $69.98.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 30.43%. The business had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.20 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Delta Air Lines will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DAL shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Citigroup upped their price objective 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. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.22.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In related news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total transaction of $6,405,943.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,721,357.15. This represents a 17.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 19,756 shares in the company, valued at $1,304,291.12. The trade was a 29.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 128,423 shares of company stock valued at $8,712,931. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.