Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Upgraded to "Hold" by Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) from an underperform rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $32.00 price objective on the airline's stock, up from their prior price objective of $24.00.

LUV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an in-line rating to an outperform rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines to a strong sell rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a hold rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $30.02.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV stock traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $30.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,661,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,534,008. The company has a 50 day moving average of $28.10 and a 200 day moving average of $27.95. The stock has a market cap of $18.33 billion, a PE ratio of 49.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 14.88 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Southwest Airlines has a 12-month low of $21.91 and a 12-month high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines's dividend payout ratio is presently 114.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Airlines

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LUV. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 14.9% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,422,187 shares of the airline's stock valued at $1,792,914,000 after purchasing an additional 7,946,199 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,551,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 629.5% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,590,298 shares of the airline's stock worth $45,498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline's stock worth $166,742,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,496 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.