Delta Air Lines, Inc. $DAL Shares Bought by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its holdings in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 18.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 35,359 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 5,428 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $1,739,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new position in Delta Air Lines in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Delta Air Lines in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Delta Air Lines in the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DAL. Barclays raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group set a $72.00 price objective on Delta Air Lines in a report on Friday, July 11th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their price target on Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, July 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and nineteen have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $67.84.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In related news, EVP Steven M. Sear sold 18,000 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.96, for a total value of $1,007,280.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 97,505 shares in the company, valued at $5,456,379.80. This trade represents a 15.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Alain Bellemare sold 45,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.56, for a total value of $2,523,701.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 131,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,318,974.36. This trade represents a 25.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 136,473 shares of company stock worth $7,663,496 over the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Delta Air Lines Stock Up 0.4%

NYSE DAL opened at $57.32 on Friday. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 52 week low of $34.74 and a 52 week high of $69.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.21. The firm has a market cap of $37.42 billion, a PE ratio of 8.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.50.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 10th. The transportation company reported $2.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.09. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 24.86% and a net margin of 7.24%.The company had revenue of $15.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.36 EPS. Delta Air Lines’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 16th will be given a $0.1875 dividend. This represents a $0.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 16th. Delta Air Lines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.87%.

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.