Fisher Asset Management LLC Invests $277,000 in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 9,604 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 378,428 shares of the airline’s stock worth $10,929,000 after acquiring an additional 103,834 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 506,762 shares of the airline’s stock worth $14,635,000 after acquiring an additional 124,054 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 10,790,654 shares of the airline’s stock worth $311,634,000 after acquiring an additional 47,119 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter worth about $1,069,000. Finally, abrdn plc boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 35.8% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 95,911 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,770,000 after acquiring an additional 25,268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on LUV shares. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. HSBC began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Monday, May 13th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $27.80 target price for the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.50 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $20.00 in a report on Monday, April 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.83.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of LUV stock opened at $28.49 on Tuesday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $39.53. The stock has a market cap of $17.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.42.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The airline reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 1.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.27) earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 19th will be given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is currently 114.29%.

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.