Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.15 on March 20th

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the transportation company on Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th.

Delta Air Lines has a payout ratio of 7.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Delta Air Lines to earn $8.28 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 7.2%.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

NYSE:DAL opened at $61.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $39.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.54, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.36. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $64.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.73. Delta Air Lines 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.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The transportation company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 30.41% and a net margin of 5.61%. The company had revenue of $15.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.20 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP William C. Carroll sold 6,783 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.94, for a total transaction of $447,271.02. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 91,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 439,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,721,357.15. This trade represents a 17.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 162,886 shares of company stock valued at $11,116,463. 0.96% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted 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. StockNews.com raised Delta Air Lines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 price target on shares of Delta Air Lines in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.22.

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.