Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 26th

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th.

Southwest Airlines has increased its dividend by an average of 71.0% per year over the last three years. Southwest Airlines has a payout ratio of 45.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $1.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.5%.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $31.97 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $35.18. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $30.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Southwest Airlines’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This trade 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Friday, November 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 price target (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.78.

About Southwest Airlines

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.