Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.04 Million in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 36,000 shares of the airline’s stock, valued at approximately $1,040,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. U S Global Investors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 6,210,347 shares of the airline’s stock worth $179,355,000 after buying an additional 1,238,468 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,866,933 shares of the airline’s stock worth $131,748,000 after purchasing an additional 32,089 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,077,158 shares of the airline’s stock worth $83,299,000 after purchasing an additional 23,715 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,606,555 shares of the airline’s stock worth $75,277,000 after purchasing an additional 50,019 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 34.9% in the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,619,499 shares of the airline’s stock worth $43,840,000 after purchasing an additional 418,624 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on LUV. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Evercore ISI restated an “inline” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.82.

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

Shares of LUV stock opened at $29.30 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.62 and a 200 day moving average of $28.54. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $21.91 and a 52 week high of $39.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.07, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The airline reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.25. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 1.91%. The company had revenue of $6.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.38) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Airlines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 96.00%.

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.