Rakuten Securities Inc. Takes Position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 5,963 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Guidance Capital Inc. lifted its position in Delta Air Lines by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. now owns 17,674 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $715,000 after buying an additional 2,565 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the 4th quarter worth approximately $217,000. Capital Analysts LLC lifted its position in Delta Air Lines by 3,443.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 61,664 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,481,000 after buying an additional 59,924 shares during the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 317.1% in the 4th quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 15,573 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $626,000 after purchasing an additional 11,839 shares during the period. Finally, Investors Research Corp increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 21,534 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 625 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on DAL shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $85.00 price target on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut Delta Air Lines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on Delta Air Lines in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $59.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.29.

Delta Air Lines Stock Down 0.2 %

DAL stock traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $46.55. The stock had a trading volume of 11,692,917 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,298,586. The firm has a market cap of $30.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50-day moving average of $43.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.52. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.60 and a 52-week high of $49.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 0.41 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 11th. The transportation company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 41.89% and a net margin of 8.48%. The company had revenue of $13.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 26th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 23rd. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 71,840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.20, for a total transaction of $2,816,128.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 428,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,807,705.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

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.