Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 on September 25th

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 31st, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Wednesday, September 25th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th.

Southwest Airlines has raised its dividend by an average of 71.0% per year over the last three years. Southwest Airlines has a dividend payout ratio of 55.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $1.29 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 55.8%.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV stock opened at $28.92 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.33 billion, a PE ratio of 45.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 27.27 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $35.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.48.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. The company had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.09 earnings per share. Southwest Airlines’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. HSBC began coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research report on Monday, May 13th. They set a “hold” rating and a $27.80 target price for the company. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. TD Cowen cut their price target on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Melius restated a “sell” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Monday, June 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.38.

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.