Sanctuary Advisors LLC Acquires 16,293 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - Free Report) by 32.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,831 shares of the airline's stock after acquiring an additional 16,293 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC's holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $2,105,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LUV. Studio Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 5.2% in the third quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 6,978 shares of the airline's stock worth $207,000 after buying an additional 343 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the airline's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the period. Axiom Advisory LLC lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 2.1% in the third quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC now owns 18,306 shares of the airline's stock valued at $507,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.5% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 3,638 shares of the airline's stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 8.4% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,918 shares of the airline's stock worth $146,000 after purchasing an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on LUV. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "sell" rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, November 15th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Southwest Airlines from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $31.37.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE:LUV traded up $0.31 on Thursday, reaching $32.78. 7,319,181 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,033,412. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $31.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.38. The company has a market capitalization of $19.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -468.29, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.16. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 12 month low of $23.58 and a 12 month high of $36.12. 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 (NYSE:LUV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given 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 2.20%. Southwest Airlines's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1,028.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Rakesh Gangwal purchased 643,788 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.98 per share, with a total value of $19,300,764.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $108,117,203.78. This trade represents a 21.73 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of Southwest Airlines 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 corporate insiders.

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.