Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Acquires 388 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 0.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 57,976 shares of the airline’s stock after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 179.5% during the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 664 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Southwest Airlines in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, AM Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter valued at about $37,000. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:LUV opened at $32.60 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -465.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.62 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $30.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.47. Southwest Airlines Co. has a one year low of $23.58 and a one year high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In other news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LUV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays boosted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com raised Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.78.

Southwest Airlines 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.