Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Stock Rating Upgraded by Evercore ISI

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) was upgraded by research analysts at Evercore ISI from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $35.00 target price on the airline’s stock, up from their previous target price of $30.00. Evercore ISI’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 18.60% from the stock’s current price.

LUV has been the subject of several other research reports. Melius reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, June 10th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.38.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.4 %

LUV stock opened at $29.51 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $35.18. The company has a 50-day moving average of $27.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 27.27 and a beta of 1.16.

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

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LUV. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,544,387,000 after buying an additional 9,444,279 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after buying an additional 2,148,435 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 629.5% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after buying an additional 1,372,305 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $166,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,789,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.