Wellington Management Group LLP Has $170.09 Million Holdings in Delta Air Lines, Inc. $DAL

Key Points

• Wellington Management Group LLP has drastically reduced its stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc., cutting its holdings by 76%, leaving it with 3.9 million shares valued at approximately $170 million.
• Several other institutional investors, including Pacer Advisors Inc. and Ninety One UK Ltd., significantly increased their holdings in Delta during the same quarter, indicating a mixed sentiment among large investors.
• Delta recently posted $2.10 EPS for the quarter, surpassing estimates, but reported a slight revenue decline of 0.1% year-over-year, leading to analysts projecting a consensus target price of $66.21 for the stock.

Wellington Management Group LLP trimmed its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL - Free Report) by 76.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,901,133 shares of the transportation company's stock after selling 12,383,363 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 0.60% of Delta Air Lines worth $170,089,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in Delta Air Lines by 5.9% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 161,395 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $7,037,000 after purchasing an additional 9,034 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,690,361 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $160,900,000 after buying an additional 92,772 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 152.3% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,567 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $548,000 after acquiring an additional 7,586 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 39,374 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 2,973 shares during the period. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Delta Air Lines by 1,169.4% during the 1st quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,248 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $316,000 after acquiring an additional 6,677 shares in the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on DAL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group set a $72.00 price target on Delta Air Lines in a report on Friday, July 11th. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Friday, July 11th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Delta Air Lines from $55.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Delta Air Lines from $53.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $66.21.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DAL traded up $3.7920 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $61.6320. 10,298,637 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,192,062. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.74 and a twelve month high of $69.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $40.24 billion, a PE ratio of 8.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.56.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 10th. The transportation company reported $2.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $15,507,000 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.16 billion. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 24.86% and a net margin of 7.24%.The business's quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were issued a dividend of $0.1875 per share. This represents a $0.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Delta Air Lines's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Delta Air Lines's payout ratio is presently 10.87%.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In related news, EVP Alain Bellemare sold 45,423 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $7,318,974.36. This represents a 25.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Edward H. Bastian sold 35,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.28, for a total value of $1,969,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 632,823 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $35,615,278.44. This represents a 5.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 136,473 shares of company stock worth $7,663,496. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.