Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Receives $32.31 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eighteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $32.31.

LUV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $31.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares in the company, valued at $3,074,534.40. This trade represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter valued at $212,000. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 82.1% in the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 61,430 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,758,000 after buying an additional 27,700 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 82,679 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,365,000 after buying an additional 6,721 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 81,845 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,342,000 after buying an additional 11,517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 62.2% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 28,643 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $819,000 after buying an additional 10,984 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

NYSE LUV opened at $31.22 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -445.96, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.01 and a 200-day moving average of $30.40. 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 has a 1-year low of $23.58 and a 1-year high of $36.12.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The airline reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.11. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

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.