Silver Lake Advisory LLC Purchases New Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Silver Lake Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 16,018 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $458,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 45.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 46,678 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,349,000 after purchasing an additional 14,564 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 20.3% in the 4th quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 11,949 shares of the airline’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 2,016 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 281,017 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $8,116,000 after acquiring an additional 29,571 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 271,290 shares of the airline’s stock worth $7,835,000 after acquiring an additional 2,590 shares during the period. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines during the fourth quarter worth about $574,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup cut their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $29.00 to $28.25 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 29th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Melius reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective 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. 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. According to MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.38.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 1.3 %

LUV stock opened at $29.53 on Monday. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $21.91 and a 12 month high of $35.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.67 billion, a PE ratio of 46.87, a P/E/G ratio of 27.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.86.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.32 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. Southwest Airlines’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 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.