Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target Raised to $38.00

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price target boosted by Susquehanna from $33.00 to $38.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Susquehanna currently has a neutral rating on the airline’s stock.

LUV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research report on Monday, November 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 price target for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.55.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.3 %

LUV stock opened at $32.79 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $36.12. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.95. The firm has a market cap of $19.67 billion, a P/E ratio of -468.43, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.14.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,028.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares in the company, valued at $3,074,534.40. This trade represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LUV. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $932,894,000 after acquiring an additional 9,504,201 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 608.5% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,623,333 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $107,359,000 after purchasing an additional 3,111,946 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock worth $89,068,000 after buying an additional 2,959,857 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $45,498,000 after buying an additional 1,372,305 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provides scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2023, the company operated a total fleet of 817 Boeing 737 aircraft; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as ten near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.