Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $27.00 to $32.00. The stock had previously closed at $30.37, but opened at $31.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Southwest Airlines shares last traded at $30.78, with a volume of 758,849 shares trading hands.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on LUV. Citigroup upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $29.00 price target (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,079,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 99.4% in the 3rd quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,271 shares of the airline’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 4,124 shares during the period. Paladin Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth approximately $457,000. CVA Family Office LLC grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 60.6% in the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,661 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 627 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter valued at approximately $313,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 1.4 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $18.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.10, a P/E/G ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $28.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.03.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 114.29%.

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.