Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL)

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 159,075 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 285% compared to the average daily volume of 41,328 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Delta Air Lines news, CEO Edward Bastian sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.00, for a total transaction of $4,100,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,313,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,702,736. This trade represents a 3.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Alain Bellemare sold 28,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.93, for a total transaction of $2,406,040.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 80,025 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,876,548.25. The trade was a 25.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 122,950 shares of company stock valued at $10,519,626. 0.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Delta Air Lines

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the second quarter valued at about $28,829,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 646.6% in the 2nd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 45,161 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,207,000 after purchasing an additional 39,112 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 45.1% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 449,986 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $42,146,000 after purchasing an additional 139,799 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 105.3% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 39,018 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,595,000 after purchasing an additional 20,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 102.3% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 105,966 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $7,045,000 after purchasing an additional 53,581 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on DAL. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $105.00 to $101.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note on Monday, October 19th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $105.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $101.00 price target on Delta Air Lines in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Delta Air Lines from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Twenty-two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Delta Air Lines has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.65.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

DAL traded down $2.28 during trading on Thursday, hitting $89.04. 1,192,705 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,384,148. The company has a market cap of $58.58 billion, a PE ratio of 17.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.43. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $77.46. Delta Air Lines has a 1 year low of $55.27 and a 1 year high of $95.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 9th. The transportation company reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.77 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $17.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.64 billion. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 16.83% and a net margin of 4.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.71 earnings per share. Delta Air Lines has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.150-1.650 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.100-5.600 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines will post 5.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.2150 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $0.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.17%.

Delta Air Lines Company Profile

Delta Air Lines is a U.S.-based airline that provides passenger and cargo transportation. It serves domestic and international destinations through its own flights and relationships with partner airlines, with major hubs including Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, New York, and Salt Lake City. The company offers multiple cabin and fare options, including Delta One, First Class, Delta Comfort+ and Main Cabin. Its other businesses and services include Delta Cargo, the SkyMiles loyalty program, and aircraft maintenance and repair services through Delta TechOps.