Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Delta Air Lines implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

• A total of 15 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership

• Recent sales by insiders

A look at the shareholders of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 79% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit US$34b in market cap. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 54%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Delta Air Lines, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Delta Air Lines

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Delta Air Lines?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Delta Air Lines. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Delta Air Lines' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Delta Air Lines. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 11% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 6.6% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 6.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 15 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.