Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Upgraded at Melius Research

Melius Research upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $34.00 price objective on the airline’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $28.00.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $31.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating and set a $29.50 target price (down previously from $31.50) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Melius raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Argus raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.52.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 2.0 %

Southwest Airlines stock opened at $34.84 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.92. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $23.58 and a one year high of $36.12.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The airline reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.11. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 1.69% and a return on equity of 5.77%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director C. David Cush bought 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $30.03 per share, for a total transaction of $150,150.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 19,011 shares in the company, valued at $570,900.33. This represents a 35.69 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,653,945 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,308,146,000 after buying an additional 426,878 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 32,978,869 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,108,750,000 after purchasing an additional 2,896,150 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,152,996 shares of the airline’s stock worth $475,092,000 after purchasing an additional 320,421 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,111,634 shares of the airline’s stock worth $205,476,000 after purchasing an additional 372,313 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 66.0% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 6,014,828 shares of the airline’s stock worth $202,219,000 after purchasing an additional 2,391,495 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.