Delta Air Lines, Inc. $DAL Shares Purchased by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 5.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,778 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,194 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $1,219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,690,361 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $160,900,000 after acquiring an additional 92,772 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in Delta Air Lines during the 2nd quarter valued at about $15,138,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 1,169.4% in the 1st quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,248 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 6,677 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 27.8% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 45,862 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,000,000 after buying an additional 9,984 shares during the period. Finally, Generate Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 122.9% in the 2nd quarter. Generate Investment Management Ltd now owns 560,467 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $27,564,000 after buying an additional 309,056 shares during the period. 69.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on DAL. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $62.00 to $65.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $63.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty have issued a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $71.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Delta Air Lines news, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 2,500 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $151,750.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 33,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,017,971.50. The trade was a 6.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP John E. Laughter sold 23,323 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.33, for a total value of $1,453,722.59. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 81,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,055,523.97. This trade represents a 22.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $2,463,585 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DAL opened at $58.52 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.34 and a current ratio of 0.40. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.74 and a fifty-two week high of $69.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.21 billion, a PE ratio of 8.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.97.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 15th. The transportation company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 23.83% and a net margin of 7.36%.The business had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 16th will be given a dividend of $0.1875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 16th. This represents a $0.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is 10.56%.

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.