River Road Asset Management LLC Acquires 435,452 Shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 245.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 613,068 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 435,452 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $24,664,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its position in Delta Air Lines by 495.7% in the third quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 685 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Delta Air Lines by 396.6% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 720 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the period. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 55.2% in the third quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC now owns 874 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Delta Air Lines during the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Delta Air Lines

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

DAL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered Delta Air Lines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Delta Air Lines in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $58.29.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

Shares of DAL stock opened at $48.10 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $43.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.58. The stock has a market cap of $31.04 billion, a PE ratio of 6.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.43. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.60 and a 12 month high of $49.81.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 11th. The transportation company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 8.48% and a return on equity of 41.89%. The business had revenue of $13.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. Delta Air Lines’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 23rd. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.14%.

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.