Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Stock Holdings Lowered by Greenleaf Trust

Greenleaf Trust trimmed its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 17.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,975 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 1,467 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter worth $609,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 26.0% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 100,351 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,931,000 after buying an additional 20,694 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 493,954 shares of the airline’s stock worth $14,419,000 after buying an additional 64,284 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth about $764,000. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the first quarter worth about $592,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas upgraded Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.14.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV opened at $29.43 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.39 and a 200-day moving average of $28.12. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52-week low of $21.91 and a 52-week high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a PE ratio of 46.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 1.17.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 114.29%.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

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.