Should You Buy Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL)?

Is Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) the right pick for your portfolio? Hedge funds are getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets moved up by 6 in recent months.

At the moment, there are plenty of methods shareholders can use to watch their holdings. A couple of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can beat the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. Obviously, there are many motivations for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action regarding Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL).

Hedge fund activity in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

At Q1’s end, a total of 68 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 10% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Paul Ruddock and Steve Heinz’s Lansdowne Partners had the largest position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL), worth close to $576.9 million, comprising 7.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Patrick Halloran of Wayzata Investment Partners, with a $565.4 million position; the fund has 62.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies that hold long positions include Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management Group, Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management and Thomas E. Claugus’s GMT Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Odey Asset Management Group, managed by Crispin Odey, created the biggest position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL). Odey Asset Management Group had 223.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited also initiated a $60.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Sean Cullinan’s Point State Capital, Bruce J. Richards and Louis Hanover’s Marathon Asset Management, and Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management.

How have insiders been trading Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL). These stocks are Spirit Airlines Incorporated (NASDAQ:SAVE), US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE:LCC) and United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL). This group of stocks are the members of the major airlines industry and their market caps are closest to DAL’s market cap.

With the results demonstrated by the aforementioned studies, everyday investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) applies perfectly to this mantra.

Click here to learn why you should track hedge funds