Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Coverage Initiated at Bank of America

Equities researchers at Bank of America began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in a note issued to investors on Monday, StockNewsAPI reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 price target on the airline’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 7.74% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on LUV. Susquehanna increased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.31.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $30.63 on Monday. Southwest Airlines has a twelve month low of $22.58 and a twelve month high of $35.18. The company has a market capitalization of $18.37 billion, a PE ratio of -437.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.22.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average cost 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 in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LUV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,148,435 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,422,187 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,792,914,000 after purchasing an additional 7,946,199 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in 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. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth approximately $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

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.