David Tepper (Trades, Portfolio) sold out his 8,594,855 shares in Delta Air Lines (DAL, Financial) for an average price of $42.61 per share in the second quarter.
Delta Air Lines began as a small aerial crop dusting operation in 1924, 21 years after the Wright Brothers completed their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Fast-forward 92 years and Delta has become one of the world’s largest global airlines, helping more than 160 million travelers reach their desired destinations around the world each year.
The company operates its business in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita.
Delta has a market cap of $28.41 billion, a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 6.18, an enterprise value of $33.26 billion and a price-book (P/B) ratio of 2.39.
GuruFocus gives Delta Air Lines a 6 of 10 financial strength rating with a cash-debt ratio of 0.38, ranking it beneath 63% of the 76 companies in the global airlines industry. The company also has a 7 of 10 profitability and growth rating with an operating margin of 19.58%, an ROE of 44.47% and EPS (three-year) growth of 67.90%, ranking it above 85% of the 39 companies within its industry.
Tepper may have decided to sell out his shares to cash in on his profits as the company has netted him an estimated 52% profit since the first quarter of 2012. Over the previous year, Delta Air Lines' market price has tumbled by an estimated 19%. Since Tepper sold out his shares in Delta, its market price has dipped by an estimated 11%.
It is noteworthy that gurus Alan Fournier (Trades, Portfolio) and Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) also sold out their remaining shares of Delta Air Lines during the second quarter.
Disclosure: Author does not own any shares of this company.
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