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

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%.

Delta Air Lines has a payout ratio of 7.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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

DAL traded down $1.20 during trading on Thursday, hitting $67.86. 5,996,762 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,339,612. The company has a market cap of $43.79 billion, a PE ratio of 12.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.36. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.51. Delta Air Lines has a 1 year low of $37.29 and a 1 year high of $69.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business earned $1.28 earnings per share. Delta Air Lines’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Delta Air Lines news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of Delta Air Lines 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,721,357.15. The trade was a 17.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 6,783 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.94, for a total transaction of $447,271.02. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,016 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $660,455.04. The trade was a 40.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 128,423 shares of company stock worth $8,712,931 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DAL shares. Barclays raised 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. Citigroup lifted 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. TD Cowen lifted 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.22.

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.