Southwest Airlines Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NYSE:LUV)

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 31st, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the airline on Wednesday, September 25th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%.

Southwest Airlines has raised its dividend by an average of 71.0% annually over the last three years. Southwest Airlines has a dividend payout ratio of 52.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Southwest Airlines to earn $1.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.7%.

Southwest Airlines Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $26.92 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $27.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a PE ratio of 42.73, a P/E/G ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 1.15. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $21.91 and a 1 year high of $35.18.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.07. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The firm had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 0.29 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LUV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down previously from $33.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Southwest Airlines from $29.00 to $28.25 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southwest Airlines presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

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.