Linda B. Rutherford Sells 3,849 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Stock

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 89,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,074,534.40. This trade represents a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Southwest Airlines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LUV opened at $33.56 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $20.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -481.00, a P/E/G ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $31.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.12. Southwest Airlines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $36.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The business 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 business’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,028.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. BNP Paribas raised Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Four 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.37.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter valued at $33,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Southwest Airlines during the third quarter valued at $33,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AM Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 2nd quarter worth about $37,000. 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.