D.A. Davidson & CO. Invests $247,000 in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

D.A. Davidson & CO. bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,352 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LUV. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. AM Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its position in Southwest Airlines by 35.4% in the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 1,487 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 389 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LUV shares. Barclays increased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup increased their price target on Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI raised Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America assumed coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research report on Monday, November 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 price target for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.25.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 3.5 %

LUV stock opened at $34.13 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a market capitalization of $20.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -487.57, a PEG ratio of 7.71 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $35.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $31.19 and a 200-day moving average of $28.92.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently -1,028.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 21.73 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were 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 directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.