Empower Advisory Group LLC Sells 11,385 Shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Empower Advisory Group LLC trimmed its position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 56.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,679 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 11,385 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $525,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 160,130 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $9,688,000 after acquiring an additional 11,777 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 97,914 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $5,924,000 after acquiring an additional 4,208 shares in the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 58,509 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $3,540,000 after acquiring an additional 9,470 shares in the last quarter. Nkcfo LLC acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $242,000. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the fourth quarter worth $6,781,000. 69.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.85, for a total value of $6,405,943.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at $30,721,357.15. This trade represents a 17.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 8,400 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.02, for a total transaction of $554,568.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 19,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,304,291.12. This trade represents a 29.83 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 162,886 shares of company stock worth $11,116,463 over the last 90 days. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.22.

Delta Air Lines Stock Up 1.1 %

DAL opened at $65.04 on Thursday. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.29 and a fifty-two week high of $69.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.37. The company has a fifty day moving average of $64.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.20, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.36.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.61% and a return on equity of 30.41%. The company had revenue of $15.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.20 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Delta Air Lines’s payout ratio is 11.26%.

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.