Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Shares Sold by Mutual Advisors LLC

Mutual Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 39,816 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 2,636 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $1,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the third quarter worth $33,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its position in Southwest Airlines by 60.6% in the 3rd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,661 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 627 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,770 shares of the airline’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 35.3% in the third quarter. New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,923 shares of the airline’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In related news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total transaction of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,074,534.40. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the 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 owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on LUV. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.31.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $32.12 on Friday. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12-month low of $23.58 and a 12-month high of $36.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -458.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.14. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.28.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.84 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1,028.57%.

About Southwest Airlines

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.