Kiltearn Partners LLP Has $37.07 Million Stock Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Kiltearn Partners LLP trimmed its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 16.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,250,983 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 243,300 shares during the period. Southwest Airlines accounts for 5.0% of Kiltearn Partners LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Kiltearn Partners LLP owned 0.21% of Southwest Airlines worth $37,067,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 189,763 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $5,623,000 after acquiring an additional 72,721 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at about $247,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth about $1,751,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth about $233,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 38,795 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,149,000 after buying an additional 4,074 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV opened at $31.96 on Wednesday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $35.18. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $30.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. Southwest Airlines’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1,028.57%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LUV. Barclays upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. UBS Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.