TD Cowen Increases Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target to $25.00

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its target price increased by equities research analysts at TD Cowen from $19.00 to $25.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the airline’s stock. TD Cowen’s target price suggests a potential downside of 15.31% from the stock’s current price.

LUV has been the subject of several other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Southwest Airlines from $29.00 to $28.25 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 29th. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.75.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $29.52 on Monday. Southwest Airlines has a one year low of $21.91 and a one year high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of $17.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.86, a P/E/G ratio of 27.03 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $27.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.86.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.09 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.24 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Czech National Bank raised its position in Southwest Airlines by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 104,990 shares of the airline’s stock worth $3,065,000 after purchasing an additional 585 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 14.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,680 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $137,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the last quarter. Polianta Ltd bought a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,223,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 26.0% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 100,351 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,931,000 after purchasing an additional 20,694 shares during the period. Finally, 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 purchasing an additional 64,284 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.