Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Earns Underperform Rating from Bank of America

Bank of America reiterated their underperform rating on shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) in a research report released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $31.00 price target on the airline's stock, down from their previous price target of $33.00.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $32.31.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV stock traded up $0.03 on Friday, hitting $32.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,465,969 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,095,960. The stock has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -459.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $33.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.10. 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Southwest Airlines will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

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

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 dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $3,074,534.40. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southwest Airlines

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 55,730 shares of the airline's stock worth $1,606,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline's stock worth $166,742,000 after buying an additional 1,034,496 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 17.0% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 193,732 shares of the airline's stock worth $5,543,000 after buying an additional 28,172 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 43,238 shares of the airline's stock worth $1,222,000 after buying an additional 7,814 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 224.5% in the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 31,180 shares of the airline's stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 21,571 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company's stock.

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.