Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Stock

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price target raised by Barclays from $32.00 to $35.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the airline’s stock.

LUV has been the subject of several other research reports. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $27.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.61.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of LUV opened at $34.18 on Friday. Southwest Airlines has a 1-year low of $23.58 and a 1-year high of $36.12. The company has a 50-day moving average of $31.38 and a 200 day moving average of $29.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -488.29, a PEG ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines will post 0.75 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,028.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southwest Airlines news, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average cost 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction 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 $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 46.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline’s stock worth $932,894,000 after buying an additional 9,504,201 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 608.5% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,623,333 shares of the airline’s stock worth $107,359,000 after buying an additional 3,111,946 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline’s stock worth $89,068,000 after acquiring an additional 2,959,857 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth $48,551,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline’s stock worth $45,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,305 shares during the period. 80.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.