Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC Reduces Stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 7.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,145 shares of the airline’s stock after selling 550 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $209,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,475,988 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,544,387,000 after acquiring an additional 9,444,279 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,569,773 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,972,362,000 after acquiring an additional 2,148,435 shares in the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock worth $179,355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,468 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth about $29,789,000. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 4th quarter worth about $24,404,000. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

LUV traded down $0.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $27.23. 13,132,906 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,055,514. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $27.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $16.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 1 year low of $21.91 and a 1 year high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 0.41%. Southwest Airlines’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 19th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 114.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on LUV. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. HSBC began coverage on Southwest Airlines in a report on Monday, May 13th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $27.80 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $28.00 to $20.00 in a report on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com lowered Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.88.

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.