Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) Receives $28.38 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the sixteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $28.38.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LUV. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $29.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Melius reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Southwest Airlines to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 0.6% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 104,990 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $3,065,000 after acquiring an additional 585 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Southwest Airlines by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,680 shares of the airline’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 10,790,654 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $311,634,000 after acquiring an additional 47,119 shares during the last quarter. Polianta Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter valued at $1,223,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 26.0% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 100,351 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,931,000 after purchasing an additional 20,694 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 1.4 %

LUV opened at $29.51 on Monday. Southwest Airlines has a twelve month low of $21.91 and a twelve month high of $35.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.90. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.90. The firm has a market cap of $17.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 27.03 and a beta of 1.16.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.32 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. Southwest Airlines’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.09 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Southwest Airlines will post 0.24 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Southwest Airlines’s dividend payout ratio is currently 114.29%.

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.