Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Sold by Douglas Lane & Associates LLC

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC reduced its position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 15.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,872 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 4,500 shares during the period. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $836,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 32.9% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 65,831 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 16,293 shares during the period. Olstein Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in Southwest Airlines by 33.7% during the third quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P. now owns 258,000 shares of the airline’s stock worth $7,645,000 after acquiring an additional 65,000 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new position in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth about $609,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $89,068,000 after acquiring an additional 2,959,857 shares during the period. Finally, Highland Peak Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,963,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $32.79 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.93. The firm has a market cap of $19.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -468.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.14. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $36.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently -1,028.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Friday, November 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,074,534.40. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% 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.