Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Sold by MML Investors Services LLC

MML Investors Services LLC lowered its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,540 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 1,935 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LUV. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines in the third quarter worth approximately $577,000. Wahed Invest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.5% in the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 3,638 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the third quarter worth $528,000. Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the third quarter valued at $616,000. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter valued at $68,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,074,534.40. The trade was a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the 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 completion of 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. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.37.

Southwest Airlines Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $33.28 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $19.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -475.43, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1 year low of $23.58 and a 1 year high of $36.12. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,028.57%.

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.