Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Price Target Raised to $40.00

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) had its price objective lifted by Raymond James from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has an outperform rating on the airline’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Southwest Airlines from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, November 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $33.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted 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 investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.96.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Southwest Airlines stock opened at $33.62 on Monday. Southwest Airlines has a 1 year low of $23.58 and a 1 year high of $36.12. The firm has a market cap of $20.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -480.29, a PEG ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50-day moving average of $32.46 and a 200 day moving average of $29.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.10. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is currently -1,028.57%.

Insider Transactions at Southwest Airlines

In other Southwest Airlines news, insider Linda B. Rutherford sold 3,849 shares of Southwest Airlines stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was 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 $3,074,534.40. The trade was 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. Also, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 59,912,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Airlines

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in Southwest Airlines by 1.7% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 31,898 shares of the airline’s stock worth $913,000 after acquiring an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Southwest Airlines during the 2nd quarter valued at $61,000. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Southwest Airlines by 60.5% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 72,461 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,073,000 after buying an additional 27,314 shares during the last quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC purchased a new position in Southwest Airlines during the second quarter worth $107,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 1.3% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,107,507 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $31,686,000 after acquiring an additional 14,017 shares during the last quarter. 80.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.