What is Seaport Res Ptn's Forecast for LUV FY2024 Earnings?

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) - Equities researchers at Seaport Res Ptn increased their FY2024 earnings estimates for shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note issued on Tuesday, December 10th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst D. Mckenzie now anticipates that the airline will earn $0.85 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $0.81. The consensus estimate for Southwest Airlines' current full-year earnings is $0.75 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for Southwest Airlines' Q4 2024 earnings at $0.45 EPS.

LUV has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $31.37.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded down $0.34 during trading on Thursday, hitting $33.24. 5,285,882 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,089,826. 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 stock's fifty day simple moving average is $31.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.15. The firm has a market cap of $19.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -479.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines has a 52-week low of $23.58 and a 52-week high of $36.12.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a positive return on equity of 4.56% and a negative net margin of 0.06%. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. Southwest Airlines's revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. Southwest Airlines's payout ratio is -1,028.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 89,376 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,074,534.40. The trade was a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 41.1% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. Finally, AM Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company's stock.

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.