Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th.

Southwest Airlines has increased its dividend payment by an average of 71.0% per year over the last three years. Southwest Airlines has a payout ratio of 43.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $1.63 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 44.2%.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

NYSE:LUV opened at $33.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Southwest Airlines has a 1-year low of $23.58 and a 1-year high of $36.12. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $31.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.46. The stock has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a P/E ratio of -483.71, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.16.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LUV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.37.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $35,912,933.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.