Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Purchases 973 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. lifted its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,977 shares of the airline’s stock after buying an additional 973 shares during the period. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $166,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,496 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,377,660 shares of the airline’s stock worth $100,080,000 after purchasing an additional 46,110 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $89,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,959,857 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in Southwest Airlines in the second quarter worth about $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,372,305 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LUV opened at $32.36 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $30.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.75. The firm has a market cap of $19.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -462.29, a P/E/G ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $35.18. 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 released 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. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,028.57%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on LUV. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal bought 643,788 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.