Bank of America Begins Coverage on Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV)

Bank of America began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in a report released on Monday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm set a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 price target on the airline’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 7.18% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also commented on LUV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.31.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $30.79. The company had a trading volume of 1,131,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,364,611. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $18.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -438.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.21. Southwest Airlines has a 1-year low of $22.58 and a 1-year high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In related news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, 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 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Southwest Airlines news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 64,743 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,889,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC now owns 18,306 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $507,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its stake 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. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 51,395 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 42.6% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,412 shares of the airline’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.