Oak Thistle LLC Has $260,000 Stock Holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Oak Thistle LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) by 57.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,739 shares of the airline's stock after selling 10,609 shares during the quarter. Oak Thistle LLC's holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LUV. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Southwest Airlines by 46.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,082,719 shares of the airline's stock valued at $932,894,000 after acquiring an additional 9,504,201 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,828,166 shares of the airline's stock valued at $166,742,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034,496 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 608.5% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,623,333 shares of the airline's stock worth $107,359,000 after purchasing an additional 3,111,946 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,377,660 shares of the airline's stock worth $100,080,000 after buying an additional 46,110 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Airlines by 6,414.5% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 3,006,000 shares of the airline's stock valued at $89,068,000 after buying an additional 2,959,857 shares in the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LUV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, December 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Southwest Airlines from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "sell" rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $32.31.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $32.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,465,969 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,794,093. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $36.12. The firm has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a PE ratio of -459.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.14. The business's 50-day moving average price is $33.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 currently -1,028.57%.

Insider Activity at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.40, for a total value of $132,405.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 89,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,074,534.40. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southwest Airlines 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.